The Succesor (My Hero Academia)

All Might Can Be a Good Mentor When He Tries

I stared at my phone, sitting cross legged on the beach. Everyone of my messages was marked as read, but still no reply from Tenko. I frowned. It wasn't like him to not reply, especially for this long.

"Young Midoriya," All Might said. "Is everything alright?"

"Oh, uh, no, I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me, I'm just wondering why Tenko hasn't responded to any of my texts."

All Might hummed and sat next to me. "I'm sure he's just busy, and besides-" He reached over and ruffled my hair. "You got into UA, young Midoriya. I'm so proud of you."

"Are you really teaching?" I asked.

He nodded. "Originally it was so I could pick a successor, but it will serve as an excellent way to further your training. Speaking of-" He hit the back of my head. "Don't break all your bones again, young man."

"It's not like I wanted to!"

"I know. I wish there was an easy way to help you figure out how not to." He curled and uncurled his hands. "It's been a long time since I had any recoil from my quirk, even back then it was never that bad."

"And it wouldn't really matter how much muscle you had because the real issue is the equal and opposite reaction that comes from hitting something. Actually having more muscle would make it worse because you'd be packing more power into each punch so your bones would have to deal with more stress." I started mumbling to myself, writing out possibilities in the sand.

All Might laughed and hit my back. "Worthwile notes, my dear prince of nonsense."

I smiled at him. While the prince of nonsense might have seemed insulting to some people, I liked it. There wasn't any malice in his words, not like Kacchan and his friends when they talked to me. My smile soon fell and I stared at my hands.

"Are you sure I can do this?"

All Might smiled and gave me a thumbs up. "Of course you can, my boy. You can do anything you set your mind to. Just focus on not breaking your bones for the time being. Do you happen to have a notebook?"

I nodded and pulled one out along with a pencil. All Might took both and flipped to the back.

"You said the issue with you breaking your bones is one of shock absorption, right?" He didn't wait for my answer before sketching out what looked like braces. "My mentor had something similar made for me when I was your age, but I was only getting hairline fractures so I don't know how well this will work. Aside from that it's rather hard to get support gear approved for first year students, especially if it's a quirk they can activate, but Nezu will probably allow it given the horrible recoil."

I stared at the sketch and then looked at All Might. "Why- Why are you helping me?" Tears welled up in my eyes. I thought for sure he'd want me to pass One for All to someone who could use it without breaking themselves. Someone who has a quirk and isn't completely useless. Tears started streaming down my face.

"Crybaby." All Might laughed and ruffled my hair again. "Because, you're going to be a hero." He paused. "Young Midoriya, did you perchance read any Pre-Quirk comics?"

I nodded. Tenko loves them so Dad occasionally sends some. "Why?"

"Back then it was thought that heroes should keep their lives separate from their work. These days, that's harder to do, but you need to treat this shared secret like a secret identity of sorts." All Might sighed. "My mentor, Shimura Nana, told her husband the true nature of her quirk. He was brutally murdered, making Nana decide to give up her beloved son to protect him."

"What happened to him?" I asked. "Her son?"

"I don't know. He was a nice kid, but he was too young to understand why his mother left. You need to understand, my boy, that I'm not telling you this to scare you. Just because I don't have a family doesn't mean you can't."

I nodded and unlocked my phone.

Wasn't your grandmother's name Shimura Nana?

Yeah. Why?

Just wondering

I didn't mention it to All Might. Tenko kinda hates heroes for a reason. From what he told me, his dad used to beat him whenever heroes came up in the conversation. Knowing what I know, I don't think All Might would like to hear that the son of his mentor went on to abuse his children until his son killed the entire family. Including the dog.

We sat and stared at the water for a bit. Neither of us talked, and I was more than content to sit next to my idol. My face burned red when he wrapped and arm around my shoulders and pulled me against his side.

"W-what are you doing?" I squeaked.

"You're going to be a great hero, young Midoriya. Never doubt that. I'm sorry that I never encouraged that before." His voice was low and he stared off into the distance.

"No, that's okay. I understood why you'd say that. I mean, you got injured pretty badly and your really strong and-" I frantically waved my hands.

"It doesn't change the fact that I crushed your dreams. I promised myself when I became a hero that I would do what I could to create a world in which everyone could pursue their dreams, and I crushed yours."

"But you're giving me the chance to actually become a hero! I never could've done it without you. The entrance exam is heavily skewed towards powerful physical quirks like Kacchan's explosions. Anyone with mental quirks was at a extreme disadvantage, although if someone with a quirk to control others controlled someone else and use them to stop the robots who would the points go to? There was a kid in my group that had some sort of quirk that must've relied on responses because he kept asking people questions but no one responded. Which if you think about it that would be a really useful quirk because it could be used for hostage situations or if you had a hero who tended to act without thinking but you needed their quirk for a delicate situation-" I started mumbling to myself.

All Might laughed. "A very good point, my prince of nonsense. Maybe I should bring that up with Nezu. Though you know what's weird?"

I looked up at him, curious.

"His quirk is mental, yet he chooses to rig the entrance exams to favor physical ones. But I don't want you sitting here mumbling all day. How do you feel about ice cream?"

Am I supposed to be editing a different book? Yes. Yes I am.

Now if you excuse me I'm going to do that so I can actually get something done.

See yah