Yukino, who wanted nothing to do with this matter, simply turned her head away.
"Then everyone, guess who'll take first place. My bet's on Sero," Eijiro Kirishima said decisively.
"I'm guessing Su Lin. Even though he's never shown any especially fast speed."
"I think it's him too. This guy's strength has always been a mystery. If we underestimate him, we're guaranteed to lose."
"Either way, Deku's coming in last," Bakugo said maliciously.
Soon, the five of them took their positions around the massive sports field.
It was impossible to imagine just how enormous U.A. was. A single sports field covered an area comparable to a small city. Despite being a student there, Su Lin still had not explored the entire campus.
"Then, are you all ready? On your marks... START!"
At All Might's roar, all five of them set off at once.
Sero charged into the lead almost immediately. His tape was practically cheating—wrapping it around steel structures let him propel himself swiftly through the air.
Tenya Iida's engines were naturally impressive as well, while Mina Ashido's acid acted like lubricant. Spraying it beneath her feet allowed her to glide.
There was no need to mention Midoriya's five percent, but...
After running a few steps, Yukino's body suddenly vanished. Ten meters away, a smaller girl who looked like a middle schooler instantly appeared.
"Explode, Reality. Shatter, Spirit. Escape through the Dark Void."
Void Escape was a randomly named ability, anyway. It simply made her more spatially adaptable, creating an effect similar to Shrink to Inch.
Of course, Rikka did not possess the ability to distort space. She was merely using spatial energy.
"Dark?"
After hearing that bizarre declaration, Fumikage Tokoyami straightened slightly.
"All For One's Deeds"
"This guy is so fast."
Two nearly imperceptible beads of cold sweat appeared on muscular All Might's forehead.
He truly could not figure out how many avatars Su Lin had.
And every single one was so beautiful. In fact, aside from Yukino, there were plenty of boys who had fallen in love at first sight with Sister Doma and X-Hair. Countless love letters followed, most of which Shota Aizawa destroyed without Su Lin's knowledge. Otherwise, if he saw so many boys confessing to him, he would probably be depressed enough to kill himself.
"Sero's Quirk really is suited for a place like this, but compared to that, isn't Su Lin a little too ridiculous?" Kirishima felt like he had developed psychological trauma from Su Lin.
Rikka's movement seemed completely unaffected by air resistance. She floated through the air at high speed and landed on the central platform half a minute before Sero arrived.
"The match is over. First place: Su Lin."
Smiling, All Might handed a pennant to Rikku.
After taking the flag, she turned back into Yukino and calmly leaned against the nearby railing.
The others hurried over soon afterward. Seeing Yukino, they were all speechless.
"That was way too fast."
"Everyone's use of their Quirks has improved considerably since the entrance exam. Face your final exams in this condition." All Might gave the five of them a thumbs-up. "Now then, the first group may leave. The next group, get ready."
After saying that, All Might casually walked over near Midoriya and Su Lin, then whispered, "After this class ends, you two come see me."
"The two of us?" Yukino glanced at Midoriya in confusion.
By the time class ended, school was already out.
Yukino and Midoriya arrived at the office together. The instant they opened the door, they saw skeletal All Might sitting silently on the sofa.
"Lock the door," All Might indicated.
Yukino frowned and thought carefully, but she could not recall this part of the Original Work for the moment.
After all, having watched it so long ago, she could not possibly remember every detail.
The two sat across from All Might, then heard him say, "I called you here to tell you about the origin of ONE.FOR.ALL."
"The origin of ONE.FOR.ALL?"
"Yes. You have the right to know as well." All Might glanced at Yukino and said in a restrained tone, "I heard... that the Hero Killer licked both of your blood."
Yukino twitched at the corner of her mouth, a chill running down her spine. "Yeah..."
"I heard his Quirk can deprive people of their ability to move by ingesting their blood?" Izuku Midoriya asked.
"Yes, young Midoriya. Do you remember what I told you when I gave you my power?"
"Eat it." Midoriya's expression instantly twisted horribly.
"Pfft, not that." All Might immediately spat out a mouthful of blood. "What I meant was, as long as DNA can be ingested, the method does not matter."
"What? Then doesn't that mean the Hero Killer has also gained ONE.FOR.ALL?" Izuku Midoriya jumped up in terror.
"No, no. I only brought it up because I was worried you might be concerned. Had you already forgotten?" All Might let out a breath. "ONE.FOR.ALL can only be given to another person if its owner wishes to transfer it. It cannot be forcibly taken away, but the holder can forcibly pass it on to someone else. It is a special Quirk, and its birth was equally special, because it was derived from another Quirk. That Quirk was called All For One. It could steal other people's Quirks for its own use, while also granting Quirks to others."
What he said afterward was almost exactly what Yukino already knew.
All For One. All for me.
During the extraordinary Dawn when Quirks first emerged, social order collapsed, laws lost their meaning, and civilization ceased advancing.
At such a time, that man stepped forward and used his absolute power to unite everyone.
He made himself stronger by absorbing the Quirks of others, then won hearts by granting Quirks to others. He continually committed atrocities and, in the blink of an eye, became an evil ruler who reigned over all of Japan.
Some of those he granted Quirks to could not bear the burden and became mute puppets, similar to Nomu. Others became immensely powerful after gaining one or multiple Quirks.
Though that man himself was incredibly powerful, he happened to have a weak younger brother with no Quirk. His brother possessed a powerful sense of justice and constantly opposed his older brother's evil deeds.
Perhaps out of disgust for his brother and a desire to control him, he forcibly gave his brother a Quirk capable of stockpiling power.
But no one expected that this Quirkless younger brother actually had a Quirk within him as well—one even he himself had not noticed, a Quirk that could pass Quirks on to others.
Thus, the Quirk that could stockpile power and the Quirk that could grant Quirks to others merged together, becoming the current ONE.FOR.ALL.
After All Might finished speaking, he gave a bitter laugh. "How ironic. Justice is often born from evil."
"Wait, why are you suddenly telling me this?" Midoriya had a bad feeling.
"Because he was someone who could steal other people's Quirks. Obtaining a Quirk that prevented aging and surviving until now would not have been difficult. His younger brother, who suffered defeat, passed his Quirk down through the generations so that one day, someone could stop that man. And in my generation, I finally defeated him. Yet unexpectedly, he did not die. Instead, as the mastermind behind the Villain Alliance, he once again endangered mankind. Put simply, ONE.FOR.ALL exists to defeat All For One. Perhaps one day, you too will confront that immense evil head-on. I know this is cruel, but..."
"I'll do my best." Midoriya cut him off decisively.
Yukino sat quietly beside them, listening the entire time.
At that moment, she could no longer hold herself back and asked inwardly, System, after defeating All For One, will I have to leave this world immediately?
You will be given a certain amount of time to prepare.
That was the system's answer.
"All Might." Yukino raised her head and said seriously, "You called me here and revealed such an important secret because you hope I can help Midoriya achieve the goal of defeating All For One too, right?"
All Might nodded his grim head.
"I have also seen the possibility of defeating him in you."
"What?" Izuku Midoriya turned his head in shock.
Although he had long known Su Lin was strong and highly regarded by All Might, defeating All For One still seemed impossible no matter how he looked at it.
X-Hair might be powerful, but she had never truly displayed strength surpassing the No. 1 Hero, much less...
"Then leave it to me. Even if I have to throw away this life, I'll kill him," Yukino said firmly.
"Don't, Su Lin. That's way too scary," Midoriya said, his face going pale. "I don't want anything to happen to you."
"Tch." Yukino directly turned her head, too lazy to pay him any attention.
My avatars revive when they die. Did he really think I was that stupid?
"I Really Fainted"
Izuku Midoriya felt deeply disappointed by Yukino's cold attitude.
He did not even dare look at her again, worried that she might get angry because of it.
Facing this scene, All Might gave a dry cough, feeling the solemn atmosphere he had painstakingly created shatter in an instant.
Young people really did get tangled up over romance so easily. If the person I liked when I was young had been Su Lin... I probably wouldn't have been much better.
Thinking this speechlessly, he said to Su Lin, "I've said everything I needed to say. You can head back first. I still have something to discuss with Midoriya."
"Understood."
Yukino stood and left the office.
Only after Yukino had gone far away did All Might say to the nervous Midoriya, "You performed very well. Your teacher thinks highly of you."
During this work-study internship, although Midoriya had not received an invitation from any agency, he had caught the eye of All Might's teacher, the Hidden World hero Gran Torino, and went to intern under him.
And because he had mastered full-cowl ONE.FOR.ALL ahead of time, Gran Torino's evaluation of Midoriya was much higher than in the Original Work.
"All Might..." Hearing this, Izuku Midoriya was not excited. "I was thinking, if Su Lin and I had met you at the same time, then the inheritor of ONE.FOR.ALL would have been her, right?"
All Might was silent for a while before saying, "Fate has no ifs."
He would never regret his choice.
At that moment, Yukino was walking home with her bag on her back.
She wore her combat outfit: a black robe and mask.
Though the lower hem of the robe exposed two slender legs clad in black stockings, and long black hair trailed out from beneath the mask, the uniform still gave her a considerable sense of security.
More importantly, after putting it on, the odds of being targeted by bad people dropped greatly.
Perhaps that was simply human nature. When criminals chose their targets, they instinctively avoided anyone who looked abnormal.
"Danger!"
Just then, she heard panicked cries coming from the distance.
Yukino immediately looked over and saw two men rushing out of a building.
One carried an enormous safe over his shoulder, while the other held a terrified little girl in his grasp.
A woman who had chased out of the building cried as she begged the people around her, "Can someone save my daughter?"
Unfortunately, no one stepped forward.
"Don't come any closer! One more step and she's dead."
The two criminals held knives to the little girl's necks as they backed away toward a nearby car.
Yukino frowned, circled around to the building beside them, grabbed the overhead railing, and lightly leaped onto the second-floor corridor. She then drew a deep breath and rapidly approached the targets along the hallway before her.
Only when she neared directly above them did the two criminals notice the strange figure dressed in black.
"Danger!"
The man holding the little girl had barely looked up when he saw a black shadow falling from the sky.
Bang!
Yukino's foot slammed viciously into his shoulder. Yet... that exaggerated strike felt as if it had hit a solid steel plate, barely injuring him at all.
However, the force of that kick was terrifying. The road beneath his feet immediately split with countless cracks, his bones gave a crack, and his legs staggered back several steps, nearly sending him tumbling to the ground.
Taking advantage of his unstable footing, Yukino snatched the little girl from his hands and held her in her arms. Seeing that things had gone wrong, the other man gripped an iron rod and viciously swung it down at her head.
Whoosh~
With a nimble bend at the waist, the iron rod sliced past her ear, kicking up a fierce gust.
But the man's Quirk was clearly not so simple. In the blink of an eye, dozens of knives flew out, controlled by slender threads as they stabbed toward her body.
Yukino leaped backward with all her strength, dodging the flying knives. But at the same time, the man she had kicked swung a massive fruit knife at her neck.
"Tch." Unable to dodge, Yukino directly reached out and grabbed the sharp blade as it came chopping down.
The blade instantly sliced deep into her palm, blood flowing down from her snow-white skin.
Before you continue