Fixing A Broken Mask

It has been five months since Midoriya's second encounter with Dream, and he has been visiting Dream once every month since then, but he still had to focus on his training. During the dry and mild season of November, Midoriya is jogging out of breath while carrying a metal box, trying to catch up to the skinny All Might riding on a Segway, which is going a bit faster than Midoriya. Not even after fifteen minutes of jogging, Midoriya trips onto the ground face-first. All Might looks back to see what happened to Midoriya and that he's not getting up. "Did he overwork himself!?" All Might asked himself in worry. All Might slowly got off of the Segway.

"The 'Aim to pass! The American Dream Plan' was supposed to get you to take stock of and adjust your athletic capabilities in time for the entrance exam...." All Might stated to Midoriya. "You're not following the plan, young man?"

Midoriya needed help answering All Might after being asked about overdoing the plan. All Might continued to lecture him, "Overdoing it just leads to negative results!! Do you want to pass or not!?"

After hearing that specific question, Midoriya's hand grasped the dirt path and clenched his left fist to support himself to speak face-to-face with All Might. "I want to follow it... I do!"

It's not enough to pass the exam! If I don't work harder than everyone else, I'll stumble and fail!!" With earnest eyes that started to tear up, Midoriya claimed, "I want to be a Hero like you! I want to be as strong as the strongest hero! I want to help people like Dream smile for real!"

All Might stared at Midoriya's shaking body as he struggled to support himself. Seeing his determination, All Might remembered a conversation they had together after Midoriya's second meeting with Dream.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Midoriya waves goodbye to Dream as he closes Dream's hospital door. When the door closes, Midoriya looks down sadly, and seeing this, All Might approaches him. "Is there something wrong, young Midoriya!?" All Might asked.

Midoriya says, "Dream just said he wishes to have a smiling mask."

"And what's the problem with that?"

"I asked him if there was a reason for the mask, and he said 'it would help him mentally if he had one.' But I continued asking how it would help him, and he looked directly at me." Midoriya looked straight at All Might. "He gave me three reasons: 1) I was given a similar mask when I was little, 2) I don't like people seeing my emotions, and 3) it's the only thing that shows me smiling now."

The second and third reasons confused both of them. All Might placed his right hand on Midoriya's left shoulder and asked him, "Did he explain the last two reasons?"

But Midoriya shook his head, "All he said after that was: 'How can a person like me have one with what I've been through.'" Clenching his fists in determination, Midoriya promised himself that he'd be a Hero not just for anybody but for people who needed to experience having a smile again.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After seeing Midoriya's determination again, All Might transformed into his muscular form and grabbed Midoriya off the floor, holding him in mid-air. "You cheeky! You are obsessive!!"

Looking sternly at the almost passed-out Midoriya, All Might continued, "I can't say I don't like it! All the same, it's no good to be too impatient with your training! I understand where you're coming from now, though! No worries. This old man will revise the plan for you!"

Midoriya responded by stating that All Might wasn't an old man, but All Might only laughed it off like he genuinely enjoyed the compliment. But the two didn't know someone was listening to their little conversation.

"Did they forget I came here as well?" a boy wearing a white, smiling mask and a green hoodie asked himself, smiling underneath his mask. "They are oblivious to some things, huh?" The boy sat at the park bench, watching the student-teacher pair in annoyance. "And I must follow these two for another two to three months of this...." In response to the boy's annoyance with the coming months, the months went by until the final day of returning to the Takoba Municipal Beach Park.

 . . . . .

Dream was sleeping peacefully on the new bed he'd been using for the last four months but was interrupted by Mr. Yagi coming in to wake him up at five o'clock in the morning. He sheepishly got up from bed and was ready to leave for Takoba Municipal Beach Park. Dream grabbed the change of clothes and got changed. Mr. Yagi gave him a breakfast bar to eat as they were about to be out the door, but he placed his new mask over his face before Dream could go.

They left the apartment and got into a truck Mr. Yagi had rented for months. Mr. Yagi looked nervous that day, but Dream couldn't care less. "I hate that I have to go anywhere this guy goes... why did he become my guardian?" Dream thought to himself as he ate the breakfast bar. Dream looked down at the breakfast bar and remembered when he had difficulty eating it. He still couldn't eat heavily served food, but now he could eat other things besides porridge.

After driving for thirty minutes, Mr. Yagi and Dream arrived at Takoba Municipal Beach Park. They exited the truck to see at six o'clock in the morning; Midoriya was screaming on the top of a pile of junk, and he stood on top of what Dream considered his bedroom for the first month or two of living in this new place.

While Mr. Yagi was astonishingly staring at Midoriya's fantastic work, Dream stood there questioning why Midoriya had to clear the whole beach. Dream knew why Midoriya was doing this; it was because of some 'entrance exam' to a place called a school for people with unique abilities. Still, he knows that Midoriya is what they considered 'Quirkless.' Why is he going through all this trouble to go to a place requiring a 'Quirk' to attend? But his thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Yagi turning into his muscle form: All Might.

Midoriya started swaying side to side and fell from the top of the pile as All Might was in the middle of his excitement. Fortunately, All Might quickly dashed toward where Midoriya was about to hit and caught him. "You've earned a rest, young man!" All Might proclaimed.

Midoriya tiredly looked at All Might and started to speak, "All Might...! I... I did it. I did it!"

"And you did a spectacular job of it, too! Especially for a teenager!" All Might praised Midoriya while carefully helping the green-haired boy stand correctly, "Here, look at this!!" All Might brought out his phone to show Midoriya a picture of him on the first training day. He then went to look at Dream and smiled at both of the boy's new appearances.

"You and Dream were weak ten months ago, but now you both have stronger bodies. Especially young Midoriya's from no muscles to a six-pack!" All Might said proudly.

He then quietly stated so only Midoriya could hear, "We've just reached the faintest mirage of the path ahead... But you're a bona fide vessel now!"

Dream looked at his body; after coming back from the hospital, he was able to get some more meat onto his muscles, so he wasn't tired from only taking a short jog down the road and back, but they weren't able to get his left arm back to what it used to be. Dream looked from his bandaged left arm back towards All Might and Midoriya. Midoriya cried tears of joy, "I feel... too blessed!" Dream's left arm twitches after hearing those words. In frustration and trying to keep his cool, Dream clenched his fists and watched the scene unfold.

All Might patted Midoriya's head in reassurance. "Now it's time for your reward, Midoriya Izuku!"

"A reward?" Dream stared in confusion. "This is the first time I've heard about this...."

"You know what they say, right?" All Might asked as he pulled out a strand of his hair. "There's a difference between something you were born with out of pure luck and something you won after busting your butt for it! Puff out your chest and be proud! This is the power you earned fair and square, young man."

"Power? Just from the muscles he just developed over the past ten months!? His muscles against the people who have these strange abilities?" Dream snickered at the thought.

"Now eat this." All Might ordered. Midoriya and Dream gave All Might a look of confusion. All Might whispered to Midoriya, "Technically, how you take in my DNA doesn't matter, but time is running out!"

Midoriya took All Might's strand of hair and ate it but showed a face of disgust. After confirming that Midoriya ate the hair, All Might explained that the effects would take at least three hours to develop. Hearing this, Dream finally understood what was happening: "So his quirk can be transferred to another person through DNA?" While Dream was finalizing his thoughts, he could hear Midoriya yelling goodbye. A genuine goodbye that he's only heard since talking to Midoriya.

Unable to control himself, Dream grabbed from the pile of junk and took what he could hold back to the truck's trunk. All Might watched Dream in amazement; he was so shocked that he returned to being his skinny self. Smiling, Mr. Yagi helped with what they could fit in the back of the truck and finally called for a dumpster. "Young man, after we bring this junk to the junkyard, we'll go to the UA Entrance Exams. And we'll see if we can fully heal your injuries."