My Hero Academia Season 5 episode 2 depicts a strange dream in which Deku cannot speak and his body has been reduced to a strange fog. Before him are the wispy, foggy silhouettes of the previous wielders of One For All. This scene is reminiscent of the 2008 Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender, in which the Avatar is a being who exists through time and incarnates in a different element each time. One For All is a power cultivated through each wielder and with each new “avatar”, the power morphs and grows. When Aang enters the “Avatar State” in The Last Airbender, he sees visions of all the Avatars who came before him and even engages in conversation with them. Aang has access to the memories of the Avatar throughout time as a result of this connection.

Deku’s dream presented itself in a similar fashion, showing him the memories of the first-ever wielder of One For All, the younger brother of the series’ overarching antagonist, All For One. Through Deku’s eyes we see how the formerly Quirkless younger brother was forcefully given power by his older brother, whose ability enables him to take and impart Quirks as he pleases. All For One describes feeling sympathetic towards his scrawny, powerless little brother and forcefully gives him the ability to hold excess power within his body. What All For One hadn’t realized is that his little brother possessed a silent Quirk: the ability to transfer abilities to another person. With these two Quirks together, One For All was born and cultivated through each successive host with the hope that one day, it will be able to put a stop to the nefarious All For One. If wielders of this power are Avatars, then the return of All For One is an event comparable to Sozin’s Comet in The Last Airbender.

After seeing the memories of The First with regards to the birth of One For All as a Quirk, The First interrupts the sequence because Deku is not yet ready to see the rest. At his current level, Deku is not even able to see the faces of all of his predecessors, the most accessible to him being The First, and All Might’s mentor, Shimura Nana. The reason why Deku is not allowed to see the rest of their memories is because, according to The First, Deku is only at 20% of his true potential with the Quirk. The dream begins to end and The First tells him that he’s the Ninth host of One For All, before reaching out to Deku’s outstretched hand. Upon contact, Deku feels an incredible rush of power which spills out into his surroundings, causing a big boom and smashing his windows. Deku awakens to his arm and body glowing in Full Cowl. Deku later asks All Might for his advice, but All Might admits that while he had seen the Vestiges in his time, he had never experienced being addressed by The First and does not know what to make of it. What is particularly different about Deku that would require direct contact from The First himself? We’ll have to wait and see!