Chapter 37: The Right Spark!

Night had fallen over I-Island. From the window of his room, high up in the complex, Toshinori Yagi looked out at the city lights across the sea.

He hadn't slept well in three nights. He was still sitting on the edge of the bed, shoulders slumped, a cup of cold tea between his hands.

In his true form, without the muscular body he was used to showing the world, he looked more tired than ever. The silence of the room didn't help either. Every time he closed his eyes, his thoughts started over again.

Nezu is right...

Toshinori slowly turned the cup between his hands, staring at the tea that had already gone cold.

U.A. is, without a doubt, the best place to look. The most promising young people in the country pass through those doors. If I really want to find someone worthy of inheriting One For All... I couldn't ask for a better place.

The idea of becoming a teacher still felt strange to him.

Me, teaching at a school!

It was hard to picture himself standing in front of a class, trying to explain something while all those young people watched him closely.

He let out a small smile.

Well... I guess I've always had a bit of a knack for encouraging young people.

The smile faded soon after.

But I can't afford to waste any more time.

There was something he needed to do. While he still could.

If his time as a hero was coming to an end, then he had to make sure that what he had received from Nana Shimura didn't end with him.

Find my successor... and prepare them for the day I can no longer be there.

The decision still scared him.

But, perhaps for the first time in a long while, it also felt like the right one.

A burst of static broke the silence. Toshinori looked up just as the intercom by the door started buzzing.

"Toshi, I know perfectly well you're awake," came David Shield's voice. "You've had the light on for three nights straight. The sensor in your room is giving you away."

Toshinori let out a low, tired laugh.

"Ha ha ha! You and your wonderful inventions, Dave!" He set the cup down on the table. "A man can't even have a sleepless night without technology ratting him out! I guess... that takes a lot of the heroism out of my whole speech, doesn't it?"

David burst out laughing.

"Come down to the workshop, Toshi. I put some coffee on."

And before Toshinori could answer, he ended the call.

David never asked directly if he was okay. He just found some excuse to get him out of the room.

And after all these years, Toshinori was still grateful for it.

That man always knows when I need company...

He threw a robe over his shoulders and stepped out into the hallway. He'd barely reached the elevator when the device in his pocket buzzed.

He pulled it out and narrowed his eyes at the encrypted ID. He didn't have to look twice to know who it was.

Nezu.

"Dear friend, forgive me for bothering you at this hour. I've been reflecting on our last conversation and I believe I've found something that might be of interest to you. Consider it a small report rather than a piece of advice; you know how much less enjoyable advice becomes when one is capable of drawing one's own conclusions.

Read it whenever sleep abandons you again. If my calculations are correct, you won't have to wait long."

He opened the file as he kept walking down the empty hallway.

It was a report from one of the projects Nezu was running at U.A. The title spoke of potential development, but it was one name in particular that made Toshinori slow his pace.

Izuku Midoriya.

He decided to keep reading. The boy had been given access to the full list of applicants for the entrance exam. The task was simple: pick one and take charge of their training.

He had chosen a girl named Ibara Shiozaki.

Toshinori stopped.

He hadn't picked her because she had a particularly powerful Quirk. According to the report, hers was fairly straightforward: she could restrain her opponents with her vines.

Then he reached the part that had caught Nezu's attention.

A few words written by Izuku himself appeared underlined in the document:

"I didn't choose the strongest power or the flashiest one. I chose the strongest heart I've ever seen in my life. With a little help, she's going to become someone no one will dare to underestimate."

Toshinori stared at the screen for a few seconds.

A boy who wasn't even a hero yet, who was barely stepping into the world of professionals, had managed to put into a couple of lines something that he had spent months trying to understand.

The right heart.

He'd been asking the wrong question for half a year. He'd been so worried about finding someone capable of keeping the flame alive that he'd almost forgotten what he was keeping it lit for.

He put the device away and continued on.

At that hour, the hallways were completely empty. The silence brought back a memory he hadn't visited in a long time.

He remembered when he was a teenager. Too thin and still far from becoming the hero he dreamed of being, standing in front of Nana Shimura.

She could have asked him to prove what he was capable of.

Instead, she looked him in the eyes for a few seconds, as if trying to see what others couldn't.

Then she simply smiled.

Nana had chosen him when he had nothing to offer but his desire to help others.

And now, decades later, Toshinori was about to do the exact opposite, searching for the perfect candidate as if it could all be reduced to numbers.

He lowered his gaze.

He was ashamed to admit it, but he had been looking for the answer in the wrong place.

When he turned toward the laboratory wing, Toshinori saw a light on where there shouldn't have been one at that hour. He frowned, walked up quietly, and peeked through the glass.

A young researcher was at one of the tables, surrounded by parts and tools. His head was in his hands while a disassembled mechanical glove sat in front of him. Working beside him was a blonde girl with her hair pulled back. She seemed focused on the parts in front of her and hadn't noticed anyone watching from the hallway.

"Owen, breathe." Melissa dragged a chair over next to him. "You've been at this for hours. Explain to me what it's supposed to be doing."

"That's the problem! It doesn't do anything!" Owen lifted the glove and shook it in frustration. "I tell it to close and it gets stuck halfway. I checked the design like ten times, went over all the calculations, and I can't find anything. On paper it works perfectly. It should work!... At this rate, I'm gonna make a fool of myself in front of the committee tomorrow."

"You're not gonna make a fool of yourself." Melissa gently took the glove from his hands. "Here, let me take a look."

She turned it between her fingers, examining the joints and following each connection with her eyes. It didn't take her long to stop near the wrist.

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"I think I found something." Melissa tilted the glove slightly toward the light. "Owen, your design is fine. The structure makes a lot of sense and the calculations match what the mechanism should be doing."

"Th-Then why does it get stuck?"

"Because this..." She pointed to a thin wire that had gotten caught under one of the covers. "...shouldn't be here."

Owen leaned in.

"That wire?"

"Yeah. When you put this cover on, it got pinched. When it tries to close, the finger pulls on it and the resistance spikes right at that point. The motor tries to compensate, but it hits a limit and stops."

Melissa looked up and smiled.

"So it's not an error in your design. It's just a wire that got caught. Honestly, at this hour I could've missed the same thing."

Owen stared at the glove.

"All this time... it was that?"

"All this time it was that." Melissa started laughing. "It's incredible how much one tiny thing can complicate your life."

"Melissa, I don't know how to thank you. Tomorrow at the presentation I'm gonna say that you..."

"No!" She cut him off immediately, raising both hands. "Don't you dare. The idea is yours and you did all the work. I just got lucky enough to look at it with a fresh head."

She rolled up her sleeves and picked up the soldering iron.

"Besides, we're not done yet."

Owen blinked.

"What?"

"The connection is too tight. If we just free the wire, it could happen again. Let's give it a little more room and redo the joint."

Toshinori stood at the glass for a few moments without daring to go in.

The girl was still there next to the researcher, helping him with the glove as if the hour didn't matter at all. There was no one around to see her working, no one who could give her the credit for it. She didn't even seem to care.

That reminded him of something he had forgotten.

She had been born without a Quirk, in a world that had probably told her more than once that it made her less capable than everyone else. And yet, there she was, getting up in the middle of the night to help someone else and sharing a solution she could have kept to herself.

Toshinori looked down.

Wasn't that what made someone a hero?

It wasn't about how impressive your Quirk was. It was wanting to help even when no one was watching.

He stepped away from the door so as not to interrupt them and continued on toward the workshop.

When he walked into the workshop, David looked up from a table covered in blueprints, tools, and half assembled parts. He had his glasses at the tip of his nose and a screwdriver poking out from behind one ear.

"Well, well! Look who decided to show up!" he smiled. "I was starting to think you'd fallen asleep standing up again. Remember that reinforced suit? I can still hear your snores echoing inside the helmet... Wait. What's wrong? You've got a weird look on your face."

"My look?" Toshinori blinked, as if he'd just realized his friend was watching him.

He came over and sank down on one of the workshop benches, letting out a sigh.

David studied him for a few seconds.

"Don't get me wrong. It's a good look." He paused. "But on you, it's a worrying look."

He grabbed the coffee pot and poured him a cup.

"Come on, talk. What happened?"

Toshinori took the coffee in both hands. He took a small sip, but it took him a few seconds to answer.

"I'm scared, Dave."

David's smile disappeared.

He set the coffee pot down on the table carefully.

"...That's not the Toshi I know."

"I'm scared of the future. Of the day when this power goes out completely and I'm no longer there to hold it all together. I've been feeling that fear for so long that I ended up getting used to it. Like it was just another burden I had to carry on my shoulders. I even forgot it was still there."

David didn't say anything.

"But tonight... I found an answer." Toshinori slowly raised his eyes. "And with it, the fear came back. Stronger than before."

David rested a hand on the table.

"An answer to what?"

Toshinori took a deep breath.

"To who I'll pass the torch to."

"Your successor?"

"Yes."

Toshinori tightened his grip on the cup.

"I've traveled all over Japan looking for someone worthy of receiving it, Dave. I've watched young people at academies, I've listened to stories about heroes in training, I've followed the exploits of countless kids... searching for that spark. And it turns out it was much closer than I imagined... right under my nose."

David frowned.

"Right under your nose? Toshi, on this island there's nothing but scientists and engineers. You're not gonna find a candidate for..."

"It's Melissa."

David dropped back into his chair. For a few seconds he couldn't find anything to say. The idea that his daughter had been chosen by All Might filled his chest with pride. His daughter, the little girl who had grown up without a Quirk in a world that looked down on her, chosen by the very man he had devoted his whole life to.

But the more he thought about it, the less he could enjoy it.

"No." David sprang to his feet, and the chair fell backward with a crash. "She can't be the one!"

"Dave..."

"I know what that power has cost you!" His voice trembled, but it didn't give in. "I've been with you all these years! I've seen what you've had to put up with. And now you expect Melissa to carry the same thing?"

He shook his head and brought a hand to his face.

"I'm sorry, Toshi. But I'm not gonna let my daughter pay that price."

David started pacing back and forth across the workshop, running both hands through his hair.

"And you know it as well as I do. The moment Melissa gets that power, she becomes a target. All For One is gonna come after her. That man has been chasing One For All for decades..." He suddenly stopped. "God... You don't even know for sure if he's really dead!"

"Did I prepare her for this without even realizing it? All these years telling her to never stop pushing herself..." He clenched his fists. "And all this time I was preparing her to carry something that was never supposed to be hers?"

"Dave."

Toshinori walked slowly toward him.

David looked up.

"Now you listen to me. Her not having a Quirk doesn't make her incomplete. If anything, it means One For All won't have to compete with another ability. Melissa could develop her full potential from the ground up."

David shook his head slowly.

"That doesn't make it any less dangerous."

"You're right, David. It will be dangerous."

That response made David look up.

"But I'm not going to let her face it alone. Every minute I have left as the holder of One For All, I'm going to spend preparing her," Toshinori continued. "I'm not going to throw her into danger and hope she survives. Nana taught me that inheriting this power means being given the chance to carry on what she believed in."

His expression softened.

"And if Melissa decides to accept... I'll be by her side for as long as I can."

The workshop fell silent, except for the dripping of the coffee pot. David ran a hand across his face and wiped his eyes before taking a deep breath.

"If this is really going to happen, there's one condition, Toshi. And I'm not budging on it."

"Go ahead, I'm listening."

"She decides." He raised his eyes, and for a moment they were those two young men on a rooftop in Los Angeles again. "Neither you can decide for her, nor can I do it because I'm scared of what might happen to her... All we can do is be there to support her."

Toshinori nodded silently.

David walked over to the intercom. His finger was still trembling a little when he pressed the button.

"Melissa, sweetheart, can you come to the main workshop for a minute?"

Less than a minute passed before the door swung open and she walked in with the glove still in her hand.

"Dad, you're not gonna believe this! It was all because of a wire that..."

The smile slowly faded from her face as she looked around the workshop. David's eyes were puffy and the coffee he'd made was still untouched on the table. And in the middle of all of it stood Toshinori. He didn't look like the same man she'd seen so many times.

Melissa slowly lowered the glove.

"What happened?" she asked, looking first at her father and then at Toshinori. "Is everything okay? Did something happen to someone?"

"Melissa."

Toshinori's voice made her look up.

That was when a cloud of steam began to surround him. The hiss filled the silence of the workshop as the smoke rose from the floor and hid his body for a few seconds. When it cleared, the thin man who had been standing there a moment ago was gone. In front of her stood All Might, huge and steady, with the smile that millions of people had seen for years.

Melissa took a step back without realizing it.

"There's something I need to tell you. Very few people know the full truth, so I'm asking you to hear me out before making any decision."

Melissa nodded silently and pressed the glove against her chest.

"This power I have isn't a Quirk like the others. It's called One For All. It has been passed from one person to another for over a century, and each holder has left something of themselves in it. That's why, when I use it, I don't only carry my own strength. I also carry the will of those who came before me."

He opened a hand and looked at it for a moment.

"It all began with something very simple: the wish to protect another person. That wish passed from one holder to the next until it reached me. All this time, each of them did everything they could to keep it safe and to hand it over to someone who could carry on that task."

Melissa stayed quiet. All Might waited for her to take those words in before continuing.

"I've spent months searching for the right person to receive it, but tonight I understood that maybe I had been looking in the wrong place for too long."

He came a little closer and extended a hand toward her.

"That person is you, young Melissa."

Melissa looked down at the hand he was offering.

"That's why I want to ask you just once, Melissa. Would you accept One For All and become its ninth holder?"

Melissa's world seemed to stop. All she could hear was her own heartbeat, growing louder and louder.

Standing before her was her greatest hero. The man she had admired for as long as she could remember.

And he was waiting for her answer, without taking his eyes off her, his hand still extended.

---

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