After the meeting with All Might, ten months passed in the blink of an eye.
During those ten months, Midoriya made a heroic showing by cleaning up the entire trash beach, and Hakuji finally pushed his grades past last year’s U.A. written exam cutoff.
“......I did it.”
“So it can be done.”
Midoriya teared up as he looked at the once mountain-high piles of garbage and saw only a clean beach now, while Hakuji stared in amazement at the score that had cleared the passing line.
“AHAHAHAHA!!! This is why youth is wonderful!!”
Watching them, All Might—who had somehow already shifted into Muscle Form—threw back his head and laughed.
“Now then, Midoriya boy! Come here.”
“Ah, yes!!”
After laughing heartily for a while, All Might decided the time had finally come and patted Midoriya on the shoulder.
“Now, it is the inheritance ceremony, Midoriya Izuku!!”
Was this how his master had felt when he passed his power on to him?
All Might smiled softly as he looked at the boy gazing up at him.
This child would become a pillar.
A pillar to firmly support the society of the future, and everyone in that future!
“This is just repeating what someone else once said, but there is a world of difference between something you were lucky enough to receive at first and something you were acknowledged and entrusted with!”
All Might plucked a single strand of his own hair and gave it a light shake as he continued.
“Keep this in your heart. This is power you won yourself.”
“Yes!!”
“Now then.”
All Might slowly held out the blond hair toward Midoriya.
“Eat it.”
“Huh!?”
“Inheritance sounds grand, but in practice, all you really have to do is eat the predecessor’s DNA!”
Watching All Might laugh loudly with an “AHAHAHA!” expression, Hakuji stared at him with a look of utter disgust.
“Do they really have to do it like that? ...No, wait, I’m not one to talk.”
Come to think of it, when Hakuji had become an Oni, his skull had been pierced and he had been injected with a massive amount of Muzan’s blood.
“Ghk, gk...”
“Swallow it! Swallow it! Gulp!!”
“I-it tastes weirdly lelelemon...”
“That’s the citrus scent of my product, Might Shampoo!”
Watching Midoriya force down All Might’s long hair, Hakuji turned his gaze toward the shoreline for a moment.
The snow had not fully melted yet, and patches of white still showed through.
“......Koyuki. We’re almost there. This time, I’ll definitely be with you...”
Hakuji clenched his fist tightly.
And while Hakuji was gathering his resolve, a comedy sketch was unfolding behind him.
“All right, it looks like it’s all digested, so try using it right away, boy!”
“Yes!”
“When you use my Quirk, do it like this! Tighten your ass and shout it with everything you’ve got! Smash!! Like that!!”
“Yes!! Then... Haaah...!! SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
KWAOOOONG!!!
After that, Hakuji looked back at Midoriya only when Midoriya flipped over a wave with a single punch.
“Hoho. Well now. At this rate, it’s about time you shed your chick feathers.”
“Really!?”
Recovery Girl smiled with satisfaction as she rubbed the knee that her apprentice had healed, the one that had long suffered from chronic arthritis.
“Well done. Truly well done.”
Looking at Koyuki, who could now heal everything from ordinary illnesses and minor injuries to chronic nerve pain, Recovery Girl gently patted her head.
“I’m sorry for everything up until now. For being so harsh...”
“...No, Teacher. This is what I wanted.”
Koyuki took Recovery Girl’s wrinkled hand and smiled softly.
“Honestly, if I had a grandchild, I’d want to pair them with you.”
Seeing how kind and gentle Koyuki was, Recovery Girl said the sort of thing elderly people often said, but Koyuki only shook her head.
Koyuki’s gaze soon drifted to the small blue flower sitting on her desk.
“Oh dear! I nearly forgot! That beloved husband of yours is waiting at U.A., isn’t he?”
Seeing where Koyuki’s eyes had gone, Recovery Girl smiled with great amusement and teased her lightly.
“Ah, n-no... husband...? We haven’t even properly held the ceremony yet...”
“If you can’t call him your husband because you haven’t held the ceremony yet, then that’s already serious enough.”
Blushing bright red, Koyuki covered her cheeks with both hands and squirmed with embarrassment, and without realizing it, tiny snowflakes spilled from her palms.
“St-still, we were already engaged before, so I guess I can call him that... no, but saying it that directly is still too embarrassing... I-I have called him darling in the heat of the moment, though...”
Watching Koyuki mutter to herself with all her heart, Recovery Girl laughed and took out the snacks she had prepared for the day.
“Now, now, enough thinking about your beloved darling. Let’s eat and rest today!”
“Yay! Thank you!”
Mitarashi dango, yatsuhashi, sakura mochi...
They were all the sort of snacks that seemed like they’d be loved by old folks, and even Recovery Girl, who had brought them, preferred jelly and candy far more. But these were Koyuki’s favorite snacks.
“Always remember this. A healing Hero is one of the most protected positions, and at the same time one of the most targeted. Especially you, since you heal by spending your stamina. You need to be even more careful about how you manage it.”
“Yes!”
Koyuki nodded while chewing on her dango.
But her heart was somewhere entirely different.
“...Hakuji-san, it won’t be long now. This time, I’ll be right beside you...”
Koyuki gripped the dango skewer tightly and steeled herself.
Ring ring~
Just then, Recovery Girl’s personal phone rang loudly.
“Hmm. I’ll take this for a moment, so keep eating.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Leaving her apprentice munching on snacks behind, Recovery Girl picked up the phone that had just rung.
[Toshinori]
The name on the screen belonged to the foolish disciple who had been giving Recovery Girl headaches for the past several years. His full name was Yagi Toshinori, otherwise known as All Might.
[Ah, Recovery Girl! It’s me!]
“Yes, Toshinori. What is it?”
Hearing how frantic he sounded, Recovery Girl lowered her voice, thinking this idiot had probably gotten himself into trouble again.
If this had been a call about official business, this phone wouldn’t have been ringing here, so she spoke first just in case.
“Don’t tell me something happened with that Quirk of yours?”
[............]
“............”
That deeply unpleasant silence made Recovery Girl feel her blood pressure spike.
[W-well, you see... we just finished the inheritance ceremony...]
“Come to think of it, that was today.”
[Yes, yes, but...]
All Might dragged out his words and refused to say anything, and just as Recovery Girl was about to snap at him, another sound mixed in that wasn’t his voice.
[Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!]
[Stay still, Izuku. Every bone in your arm is broken, so first I need to at least line the bones up. Endure it.]
[Kiiiyaaayaaahhhhhhh!!!]
Hearing the boys’ voices for the first time, Recovery Girl finally understood why All Might had called her, and a very long sigh escaped her lips.
“It’s broken.”
[...Yep. I, uh, kind of tried a test run and it sort of...]
“How badly?”
[Uh, well... to the point where the arm’s flopping around like an octopus...]
“I’m coming now.”
With that, Recovery Girl hung up roughly and squeezed her eyes shut.
She had a feeling this successor would be a troublemaker too.
“...Koyuki, I’ve got an urgent patient, so I need to go. Rest well today! Good luck with the entrance exams.”
“Yes!”
After giving her apprentice a final farewell, Recovery Girl hurried off to the place All Might had sent her to, and what she saw there was...
“Just what on earth did you do to make a boy’s arm end up like this!!”
“I’m sorry... I-I thought if it was Midoriya boy’s muscles, it would hold...”
“It was the bones that couldn’t hold! The bones!!!”
That day, Midoriya had the honor of being healed by the famous nurse Hero Recovery Girl for the first time.
The diagnosis was a comminuted fracture of the right humerus, radius, and ulna.
“I-I’m really sorry, Midoriya boy.”
“............”
Midoriya’s respect for All Might had dropped a little, and he could only stare at him in silence.
tmi
1. Blood Demon Art [Exploding Slash]!!
2. All Might really did think Midoriya could withstand at least some of it. He couldn’t, of course.
3. Midoriya’s respect for All Might went down. Just a little. About as much as scooping one cup of water out of the ocean.
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