Midoriya Izuku had idolized All Might for years. He'd always imagined he was some unreachable, muscular, entity with overwhelming positivity brought down to earth to rid the world of evil. In all of his fantasies, he had never seen All Might as a crippled, nor old. He'd especially never imagined All Might as a slave driver. He was sure that using a single piece of rope to pull a refrigerator with All Might sitting on it, grinning like a maniac while he took snapshots, would be the topic of his nightmares for the next week.
"Pull harder, Young Midoriya! This fridge won't move by itself!" He idolized the man and all, but times like these made him question his years of obsessive fanboying.
"I'm trying, Yagi-sensei, but you weigh 270 kilos!" Exclaimed Izuku with a pained grunt as he collapsed.
"255, actually! I've lost weight!" All Might put his hand to his face and grinned with a dramatic flair. Izuku groaned.
He didn't know what to expect when he went to Dagobah Municipal Beach Park after his migraine from the previous day had subsided, but hours of dragging cabinets, chairs, and the occasional toilet seat had not been on his agenda.
"How much more of this do I have to do?!" Izuku started bawling as his knees buckled. All Might took another snapshot, only adding to his tears.
"Enough until your headache passes. Then, you practice using your quirk!" All Might said flamboyantly. Midoriya let go of the rope and looked at All Might directly in the eyes, flowing of tears clouding his vision.
"I get that if I'm gonna be the successor to your power I gotta be strong, but does it really merit dragging washed-up furniture around?!"
"Ah, seems I have forgotten to mention something once again! Sorry, Midoriya my boy!" Izuku's eyes stopped watering. "Your heart may be heroic, but your body is... not ideal. Better then I assumed from a scrawny looking fanboy like you, but you'll still need at least, and this is if you follow my schedule to a T; seven months before your body can handle One For All. Taking my power as you are now, your limbs would explode off your body!" Midoriya wondered how All Might said everything so casually. The mental image of his body being torn apart his idol's words brought was going to haunt him for months. It probably had something to do with him living in America for a while. Americans tended to be flippant and disrespectful.
Ignoring his doubts, muscle fatigue, and the throb of his forehead, he grabbed the rope and yanked, pulling as hard as he could, grim determination overtaking his features. "I know you're already doing so much for me, Yagi-sensei, and I wouldn't want to ask more of you, but if I'm going to be your successor, I need to know what's going to happen from here on out. I leafed through the schedule and I never saw the condition you mentioned when you offered me your power. I wanna know this stuff, so I can not only succeed you as the middle-school kid you are training but also as your successor, the one who'll inherit your power and take on your mantle." He'd been dragging the fridge as he talked and with many tugs and labored breaths, the refrigerator was on the other side of the beach.
All Might grinned and jumped off his perch; Toshinori taking his place. "You are right, Young Midoriya. Now, 'melt' that fridge with your quirk, take it up the stairs, mold it back into shape, and put it into the pile. We shall talk after you finish this task!"
All Might was jumping from rooftop to rooftop as fast as he could in the direction the boy; Midoriya Izuku went without alerting the press he had just escaped from or any civilians. He was glad the kid had stayed at the scene of the sludge villain incident for so long; he would have had so much trouble catching up to him if not for that, and it'd look less suspicious if he didn't hightail it away from the press too early. He knew that if anyone saw him talking to the boy, stories would be up in minutes about how he was having a rendezvous with his secret love child. Everyone always assumed the worst when it came to big-name heroes like him.
