Peter felt his leg start bouncing unconsciously, why was he so nervous about something he didn't even know?
"How did you get your quirk? " The question seemed to hang in the air for a good minute before Peter finally grasped what was said.
...
What?
His quirk? What did that have to do with anything?
"It… showed up a few months before I came to Japan, I was a late bloomer." Peter answered, his eyes narrowing at the man's expression.
The look the guy had did nothing to help how on edge he was.
"A strong one at that from what I've seen. It's called 'Spider', correct? How does it work, exactly? It doesn't seem to give you a spider's characteristics like other mutation types."
"It gives me the proportional strength and speed of a spider, you know how they can lift sixty times their weight? I can stick to walls through small electrostatic electricity in my hands and feet that change the attraction between me and a surface."
"And your… sixth sense? How does that work?"
"I legitimately couldn't tell you, man. How is my quirk reason for this interrogation you got going on?"
The room got quiet, Peter's leg began bouncing faster as the tension grew thicker.
"What do you know… about All For One?" The man asked, those shadowed eyes looking down at him as Peter felt himself shrink in his seat at the look.
But, All For One? What was that?
"Did he give you your quirk, young Parker?"
Alright, so was he a guy who could give quirks or something? That sounded impossible but a spider gave him his so he couldn't be talking.
From how All Might was acting, the guy he was talking about must be some crazy level bad guy.
Wait, did he think he was a villain?
He might as well come clean as to avoid that.
"Look… I know you're not gonna believe me, but I grew up quirkless in New York, my school had a field trip to a science expo where some spider, that I think was genetically altered, bit me, and then I woke up with my quirk! I don't know anything about this 'All For One' that you keep talking about. Is he some villain?"
The man in front of him seemed to freeze at his answer, that overflowing confidence he had faltering for a good moment.
Now imagine Peter's face when the guy started to steam while holding that shell-shocked expression.
"Uh, All Might…? You alr-Woah!" Peter tried to check on the man only to jump man as the room was enveloped in a cloud of… steam? that obscured the hero from view.
As the curtain of smoke began to dissipate, Peter finally got to see the man clearly.
Instead of the hulking form of the symbol of peace, there sat a skeletal-looking man with sunken eyes and a suit that was way too small.
"I… guess I might as well explain this… I'm sorry if it came off as an interrogation, young Parker, but All For One is an enemy of mine, and I had a suspicion you were connected to him. From what I've seen, those suspicions I had seem to hold no ground, but I had to make sure, I hope you can forgive me." The man rasped out, his voice having lost that booming quality it once had.
This… felt like a different person, more calm and collected than All Might but one that still sent out that presence of safety and authority in a completely different way.
"Alright, then…? How at you gonna explain…" Peter gestures toward the hero with a hand. "All of that? No offense, but it's kinda weird and a tad bit gross."
Peter immediately felt bad as he saw the look of hurt that grew on the man's face, that might have been rude to say now that he thought about it.
"You seem a lot less freaked out than I would have expected, young Parker." All Might said, his mouth turning into a smile that he guessed was trying to imitate the one his buffer form carried.
"Oh, no! I'm really weirded out hut im good at keeping myself calm with humor, you know? Now, can you explain why you thought I was connected to this villain dude?"
"Very well then…"
Peter sat there for what must've been 15 minutes, simply listening to the story All Might was telling him. Apparently, All For One was some ancient villain with the ability to give and take quirks that has acted as the boogyman of Japan's criminal underworld for generations.
As for All Might's skeletal form, the man simply lifted up his shirt and showed Peter a gross-looking scar that covered nearly his entire side. He said that a fight with All For One that took place five years ago gave him that injury that forced him to remove one of his lungs and his entire stomach, and how it was causing him to be a hero less and less as time went on.
When he told him about that last part and how his hero work was at most 3 hours a day, Peter felt that annoyance he had for his tardiness to the USJ slowly fade away.
I mean, the guy didn't have a lung! At least it's not like he was just irresponsible or anything.
So there he was, simply sitting there as the number one hero finished his tale.
He was… he didn't know how to feel about this whole thing. The symbol of peace being that close to retiring? And the fact that there was some quirk stealing villain just unaccounted for somewhere out there?
It was just… a bit much
"Forgive me for dumping all of this on you, but it was necessary, young Parker." The man gave a dry chuckle as he laced his bony hands together and leaned back in his seat.
"It's… fine, I guess. It's just a bit much, but I can handle it. I'm guessing you don't want any of this stuff getting out of this room, right?" He asked, only getting a nod. "Yeah, alright. I'm good at keeping secrets, so don't worry."
The two fell silent once again, the tension still hanging over them but not as much as before. Peter's hazel eyes looked at the man's sunken ones and saw how they looked to be in great conflict.
"Young Parker, why do you want to be a hero?"
What?
The answer was easy but was it good enough for the symbol of peace? He wasn't a major fan, but he still didn't want to come off badly in front of the guy!
What was he gonna say?
'I do it for the love, sir." That was dumb.
'I do it for America, sir.' He wasn't even in America!
Why doesn't he… just tell him directly? No jokes or anything like that.
Just be honest.
"I… never wanted to be a hero growing up, you know? But I couldn't do the things I can now back then, so now that I have the power to do good, it's my responsibility to use it. A good man told me that, and I've been trying to live up to those words for a while now. I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter if I want to or not, I do it cause it's the right thing to do." The boy paused as he took a small breath.
The room grew quiet as the hero's smile slowly grew wider.
"When you can do something good, but you don't, and then the bad stuff happens, that's on you. I learned that the hard way and I'm gonna try to make it right by being the best hero I can be. That's why I want to be a hero, sir."
Was that good? It wasn't like corny or anything? He was pretty sure that sounded good, but was that good enough for someone else? Wh-
"You really are worthy, young Parker!" The man broke into laughter as the boy simply stared at him with wide eyes.
"Worthy? Worthy of uh, what?"
The man finished laughing as he adopted a grin, he held out his hand before dramatically grasping at nothing with determination in his eyes.
"Worthy of my power, worthy of One For All."
Before Peter could ask what he was talking about, All Might launched into another tale that Peter knew not to interrupt.
From what he understood, All For One had a brother that seemed quirkless but, in reality, had a quirk that transferred quirks. All For One ended up giving him a stockpiling quirk that fused with his original quirk to create One For All.
One For all was an entirely new quirk that acted as some sort of Olympic torch of pure power that was passed down and strengthened through user after user, with All Might being the 8th wielder of the quirk.
And he wanted Peter to be the 9th.
He couldn't accept that.
"So what do you say, my boy? Will you become my successor and the next wielder of One for All?"
Peter grew quiet as he shifted in place, his leg bouncing rapidly as he felt his mouth go dry.
He should just get it over with.
"I'm sorry, but… I can't accept that, All Might."
All Might let out a sound of confusion, Peter continued to his explanation.
"Look, you're a great hero and all but… I don't want to be you, I don't want to be the next symbol of peace. I'm not gonna go into how there's better candidates for this quirk or how I don't deserve this, but I'm already stressing over becoming my own hero, and I don't want to add trying to live up to the unreachable standard that you've created whether you wanted to or not cause I know that doing that is impossible. I don't want to be a symbol to the world, you know? that's just… that's just not me, I don't want to be the one that has carry society on their shoulders once you're gone."
Peter knew that was what being offered was larger than anything he could think of, but something so big and important couldn't be wasted on him, just because he wasn't fit to be the next symbol of peace doesn't mean that there wasn't someone out there who was.
He couldn't deny the world of the possible next All Might.
Peter wasn't the next All Might, and he knew that.
"That's quite a shame, but I respect your decision. I am sorry for holding you up so long, young Parker." The man gave a saddened smile as he let out a cloud of steam and bulked up to his previous form.
Peter couldn't help but feel honored that he would be the man's first choice for such a thing, but he couldn't accept that.
He just hoped All Might could find someone else who was worthy of that power.
As Peter got up from his seat, he gave a small bow and headed to the door before he froze in place.
Someone worthy of being the next All Might, huh?
"Hey, All Might?" Peter called out, making the towering man perk up in place.
"What is it, my boy? " The man had a hopeful smile on his face as if he wished Peter would change his mind.
"If you want someone worthy of your power, talk to Izuku Midoriya." Peter narrowed his eyes at the blond as he saw his expression darkened at the mention of the name.
He remembered what he said, didn't he?
Before All Might could respond, Peter simply gave him one last look and walked out the door, leaving the man standing alone.
...
If you want to read ahead of the public release, or just want to support me.
You can join my p atreon :
[email protected]/Huvnn