Blood Is Only Blood [My Hero Academia, but Vlad King teaches 1-A]

[Obloquy]

Friday.


UA declared an unscheduled free day in the aftermath of the attack on Wednesday, giving the school time to address the press and students time to recover from the stress of surviving USJ.


That meant everyone reconvened in the morning on Friday, as best they were able.


"Did you see? Everyone was on the news yesterday, and they didn't mention me at all," Tohru Hagakure half-complained, gesticulating invisibly.


"Which channel were you watching?" Mezo Shoji asked, taking a moment to stretch his three left arms. "I definitely saw a report about the school girl who hot-wired a bus."


"Aaaargh! That's not what I mean and you know it!" Tohru declared. "I was stuck with my concussion in Recovery Girl's office after I ran while everyone was fighting! I should have done something!"


"You did." The sharp (if flat) retort caught half the class's attention, and they turned to the back of the room. Shouto Todoroki neither smiled nor frowned as he spoke. "Running to get help probably saved several of our lives, bringing the teachers faster than otherwise," he continued. "Compared to what I contributed…" He trailed off, his eyes going to the empty seat 3 spots in front of him, behind Mezo.


Kyoka Jirou's chill and exposure had worsened into pneumonia, which Recovery Girl's Quirk couldn't treat. Tenya was out for his reattachment surgery, and Mashirao was absent because everyone in the Downpour Zone had come down with a spring cold, though Momo and Mina had still insisted on dragging their bodies to class, wearing face masks and carrying extra tissues.


The absences weighed on everyone, though, the empty desk in the front of the room as heavy as anything else.


Mina sniffed behind her face mask. "Tsuyu-chan," the pink girl asked, leaning back in her chair far enough that Tsuyu only barely kept her from overbalancing, "who do you think is covering homeroom today?"


"Ano, if Kan-sensei is still injured… other teachers have classes, so I supposed it may be the principal?"


The door clicked, heralding entry.


"Very close, Asui," announced the well-dressed, dark-skinned woman who promptly entered with a stack of folders.


A handful of people looked to Izuku.


"Oh wow, you're the Soft-Spoken Hero: Miss Whisper!" Izuku declared.


"That I am, that I am," the Ethiopian woman agreed with a smile. "I am also UA's Vice Principal, and I'll be covering your class until Sekijiro Kan-sensei is released from the hospital. It's a pleasure to meet all of you."


""We'll be in your care,"" most of the class chorused politely.


"I will duly endeavor to look after you," she replied with a brief bow from behind the teacher's desk. She put down her folders and turned her full attention on the class. "I would like to begin by expressing my pride in all of you for what you survived, as well as my condolences and sincere apologies that we UA faculty allowed it to occur.


"Today, this morning you'll be going through ordinary classes," she continued, "but when I cover Kan-sensei's class with you this afternoon, we'll be doing something… special."


"Special, sensei?" Momo asked through her sniffles.


"A pseudo after-action report, discussing what occurred so you can all come to terms with it better. It's impromptu, but I believe the experience will be beneficial," she apologized. "First, however, I ought to relay a decision to you about upcoming events."


Everyone tensed.


"Sensei, is this anything serious?" Momo asked worriedly.


"Technically, yes. On your annual schedules, you should all see that the UA Sports Festival will be occurring come Golden Week."


'Oh thank you, that's something that's just normal school stuff,' several people sighed mentally.


"Sensei, are we still having the Sports Festival after the attack?" Minoru asked with wide eyes.


"Isn't there a worry about the villains attacking again?" Sero seconded.


"Wise questions, but that threat exists every year, and can even be extended to any and every public event," Miss Whisper answered. She squared her shoulders and spoke firmly. "Many villains want nothing more than control and attention. They would love it if our every decision were about them and their actions, but we will not allow fear to govern us.


"Headstrong fools who attacked and were rebuffed so quickly, especially considering they chose to attack now instead of waiting for the Sports Festival's publicity, are deemed less of a risk to us. Might they still do damage? That possibility always exists. The villains could just as easily keep watch on UA's outside gates and assault our students when they leave for the day. But if they try it, we will respond, and we will stop them. They will not control our lives or livelihoods, so while precautions will be taken, the Sports Festival will continue as planned.


"Now then," she inquired, "how many of you are familiar with the reasons and history of the festival? Why do we hold it? Midoriya?"


"It's one of the biggest publicized events in Japan each year, since UA is the best school, and the only one to put on this type of show," Izuku answered. "For 3 days during Golden Week, all the students in each year perform in a bunch of televised events, displaying to the public everything our next generation of heroes will be capable of."


'I mean, it's more complicated than that, and it's not just the Hero Course students involved, nor do they show everything, but that's the gist of it,' he finished silently, and Miss Whisper nodded.


"Will anyone else contribute another aspect?" Miss Whisper prodded.


"Internship scouting," Momo answered. "Top Pro Heroes all over the country will be watching to scout for talent among up-and-coming students, especially with UA's Internship Week coming up immediately after Golden Week celebrations conclude."


"Correct, Yaoyorozu," Miss Whisper confirmed. "One chance for a week of work experience a year," she continued, omitting the work-study arrangements that were usually limited to upperclassmen, "for a total of 3 opportunities in your time at UA before you graduate. Canceling the Sports Festival would injure our students' future possibilities, which is not to be borne.


"As such," she finished, "I expect Class 1-A will go Plus Ultra in preparing for upcoming events, and until Kan-sensei returns I will be here to support and encourage all of you."


""Yes ma'am!""


"Good. Homeroom is now dismissed, but I will discuss other matter with you when appropriate."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

The bell for lunch period rang as Cementoss left the classroom.


"I'm getting so pumped after everything!" Eijiro Kirishima declared excitedly as they all rearranged to gossip.


"Me too," Hanta agreed. "If we really catch some attention, that'll be the first step to going Pro for real!"


"UA is already proving worth all the effort," Rikido agreed as he punched his fist into his open hand. "Now we just need to go Plus Ultra!"


"It certainly deserves our best efforts, with limited opportunities," Fumikage declared from his perch on a desk.


"I just hope everyone else will be back in time to participate, kero," Tsuyu said, drawing a near-unanimous round of more sober agreement from everyone.


"Speaking of which, Satou-kun," Momo murmured, grabbing his attention for a quiet conversation.


"Koda-kun, I'm getting so excited," Tohru confessed, as her usual conversation partner was absent. "You and me, we have trouble being seen or heard, right? Would you maybe watch me as I try to show off in super ways?"


Koji Koda nodded jerkily as he erased the board, trying to not show his anxiety.


/You're welcome to all the attention you can get,/ he signed, omitting how hard it might be for her to gain.


"Hm, perhaps you should stand by me, Hagakure-chan?" Yuga suggested. "I'll stand out just by standing still, so people are sure to notice my neighbor's beauty and skill."


'Another possible grouping for me to take note of,' Momo reflected. "Midoriya, may I speak with you a moment?"


"Some guys get all the luck," Minoru sighed under his breath, but he was staring out the window, (technically at the reflections in the glass, but she didn't know that,) and Momo decided to leave him be.


"M-M-Me?"


"We are the only class officers in class," Momo noted with a sad glance at Tenya and Kyoka's empty seats. "What do you say, Vice Representative Midoriya? I can share my lunch with you and Satou-san." She held up her large, double-decker bento box with a smile.


'A-A-A beautiful girl is offering to share her lunch with me!' Izuku froze for a moment, his eyes straying to Ochako. 'U-Urara- Um, Ochako-chan looks pretty busy talking with Tsuyu-chan and Ashido-san, so I don't think she'll miss me.' "O-Okay!"


"Everyone! I'm going to do my best!" Ochako near-roared as Izuku followed after Rikido and Momo.


"G-Go Beyond, Ochako-san!" Izuku called back with a wave as he entered the hallway. 'I wonder why she's so excited… One day, I should ask why she wants to become a hero, maybe that's it.'


They made a quick swing by the cafeteria, but keeping in mind Momo's offer to share, Izuku and Rikido only purchased drinks, meeting her outside on the lawn beneath a tree, where she put down a blanket and a few clipboards.


"California makizushi and an array of nigirizushi," Izuku commented, impressed when Momo's bento turned out to be insulated as well, so the fish wouldn't spoil. 'Wow, that all looks really tasty!'


"She always brings a lot to eat, but so do I," Rikido laughed, producing an array of pastries and other finger foods from his pack. "Today's our treat, right Madam President?"


Momo flushed slightly. "I brought tea, as promised." She busied herself with making it as Izuku stared at the spread before him.


'It all looks so good! But even if there's so much, that's because…' "You two both have Quirks that working by eating, affecting your diet, right? Is it really okay for me to impose…?" 'I should have waited in line and bought my own meal.'


"It's fine, man, don't worry!" Rikido laughed as he grabbed a slice of Momo's extra-large California roll. "Yaoyorozu always brings a lot, but if we aren't doing practical exercises this afternoon-,"


"Precisely," Momo agreed, letting the water steep. She grabbed a bit of salmon on rice, dunked it in a tray of soy sauce, and popped the whole thing in her mouth. "Mm… Ryōri-san got some good cuts today." She turned her attention back to Izuku after grabbing one of Rikido's sweet buns. "Vice Representative, I wanted to speak with you about our class's preparations for the Sports Festival."


"O-Oh." 'I wonder what she…?' "How can I help out?"


"Well, according to…" Momo paused awkwardly, and he wondered who she-


"Oh, did you hear about something from Kinzokubutsu-sensei?" Izuku asked.


Now she flushed as Rikido laughed.


"Got her in one, Midoriya!"


"I… Well, I suppose there's no further point in hiding it. Yes, I'm familiar with the Sports Festival from attending a few times as a guest of my uncle, and hearing about it. Reportedly, our teachers won't do anything too special to prepare us, just more of our regular training, but I've heard him speak complimentarily of classes that go beyond the teachers' training to prepare," she admitted.


Izuku perked up at the implied opportunity to score points with teachers and live up to the school motto.


"That's great! What should we do?"


At his earnest and immediate support, Momo's melancholy dissipated, much to Rikido's amusement.


"Study groups, for lack of a better term, appear to have been the most successful strategy," she relayed. "Pairing up is limited, and things spiral out of control if everyone attempts to help everyone, but diving into groups of 3-4 students who can help each other due to their similar but different skill-sets and Quirk requirements…"


"Like us," Rikido finished. "You and I are alike because we eat to fuel our quirks with our bodies, Midoriya and I are alike because we have super-strength that comes at a backlash, and the two of you are alike for being really intelligent and analytical."


Both of them blushed.


"I'm really not all that smart, analysis is just a hobby I've done for a while," Izuku hedged quickly.


Momo gave him a skeptical look. "As I recall, you accurately predicted the outcomes of everyone else's matches while accounting for unknown variables and you were responsible for your team's successful strategies, resulting in the fastest victory of the class. You won with thrice the speed of Todoroki-kun's team, which was the only other team to claim victory in less than 5 minutes, and you were facing one of the class's top students while handicapped with a Quirk which broke your bones. A handicap which you quickly have begun to overcome, I noticed." Before Izuku could babble out an explanation of his tutoring with Nejire, she asked him, "If you were advising Mineta and I before our match, what would you suggest?"


"I-? Oh." Izuku relaxed, faced with the familiar task of analysis instead of discussing his own secretive Quirk. "Well, I don't know all your limitations, but you can clearly create complex devices like the alarms as well as chemical mixes like the neutralizing powder, so…" He absently took a pastry and chewed as he thought. "First, it'd be worth trying a lever and pulley system or maybe just a ladder and using Mineta's quirk to stick the bomb to the ceiling, especially if you could make a tarp or shell to cover it."


"A-?" Momo's jaw dropped. She'd brainstormed more than a few alternate approaches in the embarrassing aftermath of her loss, but, 'I never… well, I guess I've been avoiding thinking about working with Mineta, so I wouldn't have thought about using his Quirk to its full abilities either. But yes, if Ashido-chan couldn't reach, nor could Koda-kun or the animals…'


"Once you did that, and once you electrified or trapped the fire escape like you thought to do then too," Izuku continued with a nod, "a good strategy would be to just have Mineta stick shut every door or window he could find instead of reinforcing them. It wouldn't keep the hero team out, but it'd slow them down and breaking through would leave a clear path for whether they'd been by or not without being as time consuming as fully reinforcing the doors with traps and alarms.


"Lastly, since you created an explosive for your cannon and you made pressure sensitive alarms, if you'd made demolition charges small enough to just blow holes in walls or the floor you could have booby-trapped the hallways, especially sealing off the areas leading to the bomb. Add in your neutralizer and anything to keep Koda-kun from using his rats to scout, like peppermint oil smeared in places, and that's a solid plan."


"It… Yes, it would be," Momo agreed. 'Maybe a bit of a time press, but given what we got done the first time around…' "Some of those strategies are still things that didn't occur to me. So however you feel about yourself, Midoriya-kun, you are factually good at analysis and applying Quirk uses."


"That why she decided to ask for your help with this," Rikido agreed, considering himself largely along for the ride.


"I mean… Wow… Thanks," Izuku managed, blushing up a storm at the sincere praise. 'I guess, after what I talked about with Iida-kun, Tsuyu-chan, and… and Ochako-chan, yeah.'


A loud clap made two of them jolt.


"So," Rikido said once he had their attention, "Yaoyorozu suggested we might practice and plan a bit together, but she was also hoping you two would work out possible groups for everyone to cooperate with, while I'm here as your 5-year-old child surrogate." He promptly popped some sushi in his mouth.


""As a what?"" They both asked.


"You know? 'Any plan I make will be explained to a 5-year-old child, and any flaws this child brings up will be addressed before implementation.' Man, I need to show you guys the evil overlord list."


Izuku flushed. "Th-That sounds like…"


"Like a villain thing? It predates Quirks, so it's really more an old-movie-and-book thing about how fictional villains make stupid mistakes for the story to continue. It just means I'm not as smart as you two but if I see a problem you'll still listen to me, right?"


"Of course we will, Satou-kun." Momo took a sip of her tea. "I… Should we begin?"


"Let's start with who we each might be working with, other than each other. If it's people with similar Quirks and fighting styles, then me, Midoriya, Kirishima, Shoji, and Iida are all physical powerhouses… Maybe Ojiro too for his martial arts, and Bakugou for hitting really hard in a scrap."


"Kacchan won't want to work with anyone," Izuku disagreed immediately. "I'm not sure he'd follow any idea we…" 'I'm not sure he'd follow my lead on anything. I mean, back when his life was in danger… but that was different…' "I think he'll want to practice individually."


Momo frowned. "I suppose we can tentatively exclude him. None of this should be mandatory. Satou-kun, I think Tsuyu-chan also would qualify as a physical powerhouse, but then we have one-third of the class in that one category."


"W-Well, are we just dividing it by Quirk-typing, or by something else?" Izuku wondered.


A few minutes of brief discussion got a couple sloppy practice lists until Izuku brought up a new idea.


"Um. So, when I'm describing a Quirk, there are 3 important things to consider," he explained as Momo started a new sheet of paper. "First, the abilities, like Kaminari-san producing electricity or Iida-kun's leg engines. S-Second are the restrictions, like what they can't do: Kaminari-san, I don't know whether he can absorb electricity as well as generate it, and I don't know if he can produce positive charges or just negative, but I know Iida-kun only has engines in his legs, not his arms, and they vent backwards so they only help him move forwards. Third," Izuku finished, "are the requirements, like Iida-kun fueling his Quirk with orange juice and Satou-kun using sugar."


"Got it! Maybe he'd fit better with me and Yaoyorozu, just for training, if we need to improve our fuel efficiency. Your quirk's power is just there or something, right?"


"Yeah, it's kind of weird," Izuku admitted to distract from exactly how his Quirk worked, "but I'm working on it." 'I think I'll leave out Nejire-senpai's assistance. I don't want to let people know how much I'm troubling everyone.' "But then, so Kaminari-kun and me might be grouped together because we need to control our output more, and limit our backlash."


"Another good point," Momo agreed, scribbling down their names together. "Depending on how we define the system, we might also group together Kyoka-chan when she returns, Ashido-chan for controlling the output of her acid, and maybe Tokoyami-kun for controlling Dark Shadow."


That spawned another round of debates on group-making, still mostly hypothetical, but Izuku insisted that Katsuki was very good at regulating the size of his explosions and would not appreciate much 'advice' in that aspect of training.


"I'm going to just spitball out one last idea," Rikido finally decided after munching some more sushi. They'd gone through most of the food and they didn't have much time left before lunch ended, but they'd got a lot done. "Right now we've been grouping people based on similarities, and on things they need to improve, but if they all have the same problem, then who's going to help them improve?"


Momo frowned. "That's an excellent point," she allowed.


"I mean, I guess I was thinking people would trade approaches that worked, but yeah," Izuku agreed.


"Right. So I think I could maybe get the most done working with, like, Shoji on stealth or grappling, doing general fitness workouts with Kaminari or Kirishima… who do you two think you could best help, or who do you think would best help you?" Rikido asked.


"That…" Izuku trailed off in thought, looking up at the sky as Momo bit the blunt end of her pen.


"A tricky question," she mused.


"Well, maybe I should re-phrase it. We're doing this because we want to, right?" Rikido reasoned. "You both are analytic and stuff. Who do you really want to work with in stuff, exploring their Quirk and improving their abilities?"


'Kacchan,' Izuku mused nostalgically, 'but that'll never happen.' Then an idea he'd been tossing around his head reared up again. "Hagakure-san," he declared firmly.


"Oh?" "Huh?"


"I've seen her eating in the cafeteria, and food disappears into her mouth; we don't see her chew or swallow. Just based on that I have a few possibilities for how her invisibility works, and adding in her immunity to Aoyama-san's laser… Even just working a bit with her could teach us both a lot of things," he resolved. "Yaoyorozu-san, would you maybe consider working with Ashido-san?"


"Ashido-chan? Yes, I already did some chemical breakdowns on her acid and I developed a neutralizer once before," Momo reasoned, "but seeing whether she can alter the composition… I also believe I want to work with Kirishima-kun, to see where he falls on the Mohs Hardness scale using minerals I create. Satou-kun, you might also want to work with Hagakure-chan until Ojiro-kun returns, as she needs physical training to fall back on as well."


"Yeah, that's a good point." Rikido nodded thoughtfully.


"Satou-kun, either on your own or with Yaoyorozu-san, you could experiment with- I mean, I don't know, but aren't there different types of sugar, like molasses and brown sugar," Izuku figured.


"Sanding sugar as well, in baking cookies! Maple syrup, agave nectar… I can access many kids of sweetener if I talk to our chefs, and sucrose is just one type of carbohydrate, technically. C12-H22-O11," Momo recited. "There are many things we can explore if you haven't already," she eagerly suggested.


"Um, I mean… I've tried sanding sugar, but I never… Wow, maybe honey will work too, or molasses. I mean, I've had them before, but never the full 10 grams necessary, I don't think. Great idea," Rikido agreed, pumping his fist.


"Along with Hagakure-san, I… well, I've kind of done some things with Tsuyu-chan, so she might benefit more from physical training if she wants, but Ura- but Ochako-chan and I are planning to do some testing of her Quirk's limits this weekend, so we'll be working together anyway," Izuku continued. "Then… I don't really know who else I can work with, maybe Shoji-kun, or Jirou-san when she returns?"


"It will be a work in progress," Momo reassured him, writing more names down. "I'm probably best equipped to understand the mechanics of Aoyama-kun's Naval Laser and that belt he always uses, plus…" Here she hesitated for a long moment. 'He's been behaving better after Kan-sensei spoke to him. But I don't really… It's my responsibility as Class Rep, and I already know I shouldn't fob him off on either of the other two.' With a grimace, she wrote down one more name, adding, "If I'm going to do a chemical breakdown on Ashido-chan's acid, I may as well do the same on Mineta's sticky- on his adhesive spheres." 'The puns really do write themselves. How crass.'


"Now we're cooking with oil," Rikido chortled. "Can anyone think of anything Todoroki needs to work on? He's less likely to bite our heads off, right?"


"As a fellow Recommendation student, he may merit his own grouping," Momo decided. "I can find him to ask?"


"Finish eating first. And Midoriya-kun, eat up as well, we'll still need some strength for this afternoon."

 

[Obloquy]

For their Physical education and Health class double period after lunch, Miss Whisper instead brought everyone (gym uniforms optional,) out to a part of campus with trees, a few stray flowers, and a generally peaceful aura.


There was also another staff member there, waiting.


"Everyone, sit in a half-circle please, though you can position yourself elsewhere if you feel more comfortable," the Vice Principal instructed. "Hound Dog, if you would care to take over?"


"Rrright!" Ryo Inui barked. "The emotional aftermath of violent experiences like you all survived is nothing to be ashamed of. Many Pro Heroes have trouble coping with the violence inherent to their encounters, suffering nightmares and other psychological scars. Most of them undergo some form of therapy. Japanese society still tends to downplay the presence of mental health issues, but as heroes it is our duty to rise above that.


"Our exercise today will be a simple discussion circle. Anyone who wishes to may step up and address the class. There will be no judgment. There will be no interruptions. You are all valid, your opinions are all important, and your experiences are all extreme. Koso?"


With a slight flourish, Miss Whisper produced a gaudy, green-and-orange plastic microphone from out of somewhere.


"This will be our speaking stick. While you hold it, you will speak uninterrupted. Let me begin." Miss Whisper stepped into the central point of the half-ring, a tree at her back, and bowed to the class. "We of UA's faculty owe you all our deepest apologies. While you are entering training for a dangerous job, you remain students, and it was through our carelessness that our security was breached, endangering all your lives.


"Class 1-A handled what occurred excellently, obeying your teacher's orders and adapting to the situation when separated from him. You all have shown the makings of excellent heroes in the future, and I will be incredibly proud to play a part in teaching you. Did you all react perfectly? No. But perfection is an illusion, and the enemy of a good plan is a perfect plan. You are all alive, you will all be returning to the hero course to improve, and that is what matters. Please know that we all are proud of you."


Miss Whisper bowed and held out the 'microphone'.


After a long pause, Momo took a breath and stood.


She took the microphone, turned to the class, and bowed.


"In the aftermath of the attacks, I feel I was insufficient. Kan-sensei instructed me to create the cannon as a distraction from Hagakure-chan's escape, but I am familiar with the construction and formulas for projectiles, for flares, and for producing plumes of colored smoke. Had I begun as soon as the villains arrived, I might have fired off distress signals before Iida-kun or Hagakure-chan needed to flee. Were I particularly quick, I might have distributed weapons and equipment for fighting back.


"Instead," she continued grimly, "I did exactly what I was told… but I did only what I was told. When we were scattered," she stopped to sniff through her mask again, "rain rendered most of my potential weaponry ineffective. Ashido-chan and I were forced to rely on Ojiro-kun, who overexerted himself defending us and is now sick from exposure to the elements. I can't stop thinking of all the ways I could have made a difference, but despite my… despite my training and my position leading the class, I weighed down those who should have relied on me."


"Yaoyorozu-," someone murmured sadly, but a sharp look from Miss Whisper cut them off.


"So for that, I wish to apologize. I am already trying to do better; along with Midoriya-kun and Satou-kun, I've put together a list of potential training groups to help us excel in the coming Sports Festival. If you are interested… Well, I'll need to work out the details with Koso-sensei, but I consider it my duty to serve and assist you all."


Momo finished with another resolute bow and held out the microphone.


Mina stood up.


So did Shouto, which surprised her long enough for him to take the 'speaking stick'.


"I was…" He trailed off in thought and restarted. "Yaoyorozu-san, whatever you feel about your contributions, you did nothing negative." He paused another moment, eyes distant. "My eldest brother, Touya," Shouto declared, "died several years ago when he lost control of his flames, which burned hotter than even my father's Hell Flame Quirk."


Several of the class gasped and a few people whispered quietly in shock, but no one spoke as Shouto marshaled his thoughts.


"Touya-nii-sama's death is one of several reasons I've long hesitated to use my flames unless forced to do so, which is why I rely on my mother's ice. Although I've studied and been aware of hypothermia and frostbite… at the USJ I lashed out unthinkingly, and Jirou nearly died for it. After freezing the Flood Zone, I didn't wonder at all whether anyone was frozen inside. Had it not been for Kirishima breaking free through his own strength, and Jirou releasing a last ditch effort to breathe, we would be attending 2 funerals due to my irresponsible behavior.


"I… have issues with Endeavor, but I cannot now deny his discipline or capabilities. While brutal in battle, he has never carelessly used his Quirk to injure a bystander or teammate, whereas my first combat engagement nearly resulted in two cases of negligent homicide." Shouto closed his eyes for a long moment. "I wish to become the Number 1 Hero using my mother's ice, to make her proud of me, but I worry that in avoiding Endeavor's faults, I scorn the merits that made him a top-ranking Pro Hero."


He held out the microphone.


Izuku stood this time, taking it. He faced the class, and then he closed his eyes, trying to breathe.


They waited patiently.


Finally, Izuku looked at them again and said, "My own experiences aren't really that bad or important, compared to everyone else. I think we all did really well, though, in staying together so we all got out alive. Koda-kun saved Iida-kun, preventing him from dying, and it was Todoroki-kun who preserved I-Iida-k-kun's foot for reattachment; without that, he probably wouldn't be able to continue at UA.


"S-So… Todoroki-kun, there are many kinds of heroes who behave in many ways. You can avoid your father's mistakes and still learn to be great, not just from him," Izuku observes, "but from the other top heroes like All Might, Hawks, Best Jeanist, and from our teachers like K-Kan-sensei and M-Miss Whisper. Yaoyorozu-san, it's really easy to say you should have done something else, but what if the first time you f-fired that cannon instead made the Warp Villain and the rest attack at once, getting us more injured? What if making equipment to distribute left you weak enough to be injured later?


"I-If we shouldn't judge each other, then you shouldn't judge yourself so harshly, either. We were all attacked, and we all got through it. More than 70 villains are behind bars because of us. Sure, we could be better, I wish I was better… but we were already good, when it could have been so, so bad for all of us. IIda-kun will be back, as w-will Jirou-san and Ojiro-kun. N-None of us think badly of them for being injured, so let's hold the evil villains r-responsible and f-forgive ourselves as well."


Izuku bowed sharply and handed the microphone back to Miss Whisper instead of waiting for his replacement to take it.


Eijiro Kirishima caught him as he trudged back, hugged him, and sat Izuku in his spot between Mina (who also hugged him) and Shouto, who gave Izuku a nod of respect. Eijiro, in turn, took the microphone.


"I'm not one for regrets, so I'm agreeing with Midori-bro here." He then went around the circle listing off something awesome about every person present—Rikido & Hanta teaming up to make a flail, Shouto going beyond and defrosting the villains he froze to save their lives as well, Fumikage & Dark Shadow tearing open the dome around the Conflagration Zone, etc.—and finishing with, "Let it never be claimed that we don't rock, people! Chivalry lives on in the hearts of badasses!"


He held out the microphone and Mina took it.


She opened her mouth, and then she just stood there for a long moment as she teared up.


"I-," *sniff* "I never want to feel that helpless again! Before we got scattered, I didn't do anything big, and after we got scattered, I couldn't do anything big! The wind and the rain just… any gush of acid might've killed someone or hurt you guys! I don't want to hurt my friends! So yeah, we all got past this, but I'm doubling down on my training from now on and I'll become someone you guys can rely on, I promise!"


She burst out crying, so Ochako and Tohru quickly ushered her to the side with some tissues given to them by Miss Whisper.


Rikido spoke about how he worried his strength wasn't bringing much to the table, and he was going Plus Ultra in his training as well.


Yuga spoke to pump everyone up again about surviving and how they'd all worked together so well.


Tohru spoke about how useless she felt, having to use the bus to call for help, and how all she had done was run after hiding, not even returning with the teachers to fight.


Denki declared his worries that he should've somehow been able to power through the communications blockout, but he just didn't know how (and he said those words with as much self-condemnation as he could muster).


Ochako talked about how she felt a little embarrassed that her encounter in the Landslide Zone was only notable for her attracting trouble to her trio and how she worried she hadn't done enough because she never really felt she had to worry, like she was safe because the other groups weren't.


Some people refused to speak—Katsuki definitely wasn't airing anything in front of people, while Koji remained too shy—but everyone who wanted to took their turns in due time, and Miss Whisper obligingly used the remainder of the period to fine-tune the proposed study groups Momo & Izuku laid out.


In the end, even Katsuki offered to let Momo do a chemical work-up of his explosive sweat, and he said he'd be good offensive practice for Kirishima's hardening, so everyone had one or two people they'd be working with.


"It's the end of our time together for now," Miss Whisper declared once a rough set of groups was drawn up, "but I'd like to reiterate how proud I am of you all, both from back then and your behavior today. You give me hope for the future, you do."


She bowed and led them back inside for the rest of the day's classes.

_____________________________________________________________________​

3:20 pm


Class was letting out for the day, and Miss Whisper was staying behind to do a bit of grading at Kan's desk, but when 1-A tried to leave…


"Wh…?" Ochako was going to be one of the first out the door with Izuku, only for a crush of other students to be crowded around the doorway in the hall. "Wh-What's going on here?"


"Class Rep, I think we need you up here," Denki called with a grin.


Momo left her half-packed bag behind to address the crowd. "My apologies, but do you have business with our class? Is something happening?" Momo inquired.


"Whatever it is, they're blocking us in," Minoru complained. "Do you people want something?"


"They want to check out the competition, small fry," Katsuki drawled tiredly.


It set Izuku's teeth on edge, and not in the familiar way he was used to. Katsuki wasn't meant to sound so tired like he had ever since the USJ attack, as though he barely cared about things now.


"They what the what?" Mina wondered.


"Raccoon Face, we're the big names who survived USJ," Katsuki explained. "We saw ourselves on the news; they saw us too." Several of the on-looking students shifted as Katsuki trudged up to the doorway.


"Don't worry Kacchan's in neutral gear," Izuku joked to a worried Minoru and Momo. "He won't be starting any big fights."


He didn't really realize that Miss Whisper could hear him just fine, nor did he notice her attention turn toward the door as her lips began to silently move.


"You extras are all here to get a look at us before the sports Festival, right?" Katsuki challenged.


Several outside students bristled at the address while 1-A students groaned in despair.


"Why are we leaving this blond to be our ambassadeur dignitaire to the other classes?" Yuga complained.


"You're wasting everyone's time trying out half-assed strategies like this. …Out of my way, nameless extras!" Katsuki snapped finally.


"See, he's always angry, kero," Tsuyu sighed to Mina.


"Bakugou-," *sniff* "-don't be rude just because you don't know them," Mina chided.


"Such uncouth behavior is hardly appropriate. Please accept our apologies for him," Momo said, though she didn't pull him away from the door either.


"Y-Yeah, he's just like that sometimes," Izuku seconded, which surprisingly didn't prompt another outburst of anger.


"Ohhhh…" Ochako just whined in shocked exasperation.


The figures crowding the doorway shifted as someone shoved through.


"Class 1-A is famous now, so I came to see how you all are in person," drawled Hitoshi Shinsou (not that 1-A knew his name yet). His unruly hair was a deep purple, and he had tired eye bags deep on his face. "I suppose the answer is, 'pretty arrogant'."


Several members of 1-A bristled at that.


Miss Whisper hummed softly but didn't say anything, appearing to pay no mind to the encounter.


"Are you all alike?" Hitoshi wondered.


"N-N-Not at all! It's just, like, Iida-kun would probably be telling off Kacchan if he were here," Izuku reflected sadly.


Momo pursed her lips, getting a vague feeling. "Ojiro-san similarly is quite humble in my experience. Bakugou is the exception, not the rule."


"Yet I'm not seeing anything to reconstruct my lovely illusions of you all," Hitoshi deadpanned, eyeing the room. "Where are these people, anyway?"


"Iida-chan is still in surgery after the villains cut his leg off," Tsuyu declared, and for the first time surprise was visible on Hitoshi's face as murmurs swept through the few students in the hall who heard her speak.


"Kyoka-chan and Ojiro-kun are still hospitalized," Mina seconded with an odd twist to her face under the health mask, "but they'll be back. We probably should be, too, some of us-," She gestured at he classmates as everyone assembled to stare down the other students. "-but we'll be bringing our A-Game in time for the Sports Festival, right?"


"Right!" "You better believe it." "We'll knock your socks off for sure!"


"I-Is there any other reason you guys are all here?" Izuku wondered as the masses of students eyed each other.


Several people in the hallway shifted uncomfortably.


Hitoshi sighed, but before he could say anything, someone further down the hallway (previously out of sight,) laughed.


"Ahahahahahahaha…! Plenty of students who couldn't make the cut directly into the Hero Course instead tried out for General Education," declared a blond boy as he led several others in shoving through the mass of students. "Fighting robots can be a bit difficult for some people, so the school left a loophole for people who specialize in more human enemies; a non-Hero Course student who wins the Sports Festival against all odds will be permitted to transfer into Heroics. Of course," he finished, "there's only so much room, so a low-performer will be dropped into Gen Ed, too."


"You seem remarkably well informed," Hitoshi drawled, his eyes shifting uncomfortably between the newcomers and the survivors in 1-A.


"Neito Monoma, of 1-B."


"Hitoshi Shinsou, 1-C," Hitoshi replied.


"I'm Tetsutesu Tetsutetsu from Class 1-B! We came to see everyone who fought against villains and like the news was talking about," declared a silver-haired guy with odd growths (like a ragged picture frame,) around his eyes.


"Yeah," sighed Hitoshi, "me too. I guess here's a warning for all of you then, A and B alike: if you let your guard down in the Sports Festival, I'll sweep your feet out from under you. A bit of a declaration of war. So... you'd better be at your best come the festival." This last bit had a touch of supportiveness to it as he glanced at the masked girls.


'Wow, some really bold people are taking this super seriously,' several members of 1-A reflected silently. A few even chuckled.


"Isn't that a little extreme?" Momo wondered.


"Barking dogs rarely bite," Katsuki dismissed flatly with a huff. "If these guys were worth anything, they'd realize that spelling out the danger will only help us fight back. They don't matter."


"Hey, don't dismiss us, you'll only embarrass yourself!" Tetsutetsu roared furiously.


At the desk, Miss Whisper watched the situation out of the corner of her eye, lips silently moving again.


"Ahahahaha…! You're Katsuki Bakugou, right? You're already famous for surviving one villain attack, the sludge guy," Neito Monoma recalled drily. "No wonder you're the most stuck up in this group, getting to hog the spotlight twice like that."


"What did you just say?" Katsuki grit out?


"Monoma," an orange-haired girl scolded from the side of the crowd, but she couldn't press in to reach him quickly.


"My research said the idiot who jumped in then with only his notebook is here as well," Neito continued, and Izuku tensed. "I bet you all had so much fun with that villain attack, enjoying your 5 minutes of fame. Ahahahahaha…! If that's all you want out of life, proving how much better than us you are, then I really hope you get to experience a few more-,"


"What the hell did I just hear?"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

Due to comments on SpaceBattles, there is a rewrite or addendum to the previous ch is in progress but slow, so I'm going to keep the story moving past the rough spot in the meanwhile.

The other students at the end knew things are in the news, but not the entire details of who was hurt or how badly; a majority of the students gathered just hope 1-A is all okay, by the way, they just don't know how to express this or have enough confidence to speak up.

Guess who's talking at the end, I dare you.

 

[Obloquy]

"What the hell did I just hear?"


Neito Monoma froze.


Tetsutetsu, who would happily face any fight that promised to be a fair challenge, stiffened in fear.


Itsuka Kendo, who had charged into a burning building when one of her fellow examinees lost control of their Quirk during the entry exam practical, abruptly found herself too terrified to move.


Katsuki Bakugou, the survivor of two villain attacks who aimed to surpass All Might, shuddered at the anger present in those words, and stayed still.


En masse, half the students in the hallway scrambled to clear a path, pulling their less reactionary classmates out of the way.


A length of cloth shot down the hall to envelop Neito Monoma as he panicked.


Quirk active, a red-eyed Shota Aizawa strode down the hallway, radiating cold fury.


"S-S-Sensei," Itsuka managed through her fear, "it's not-!"


"Enough, Kendo. I have ears," Eraserhead growled.


He didn't look like a hobo now, as was his usual daily appearance. He looked like a veteran Pro Hero in full command of the situation, and the students barely dared to breathe in his direction.


"Neito Monoma," Eraserhead intoned darkly. "Do my ears deceive me? Earlier this week, Class 1-A was fighting for their lives, and here you stand, mocking them about the experience? Pretending they should have enjoyed putting their lives on the line without warning? Acting as though it isn't a miracle they all pulled through, and that it didn't come at the expense of great suffering on their parts? Ignoring how Vlad King remains hospitalized with his injuries, and that only immediate medical attention prevented several of them from being crippled, if not outright dying?"


"I- I- I-," Neito attempted, too terrified under Aizawa's baleful gaze to defend himself.


"Wishing," Aizawa spat venomously, "that they would repeat the experience, as though it weren't traumatizing enough the first time?"


"I- I- I just-,"


"You are hereby expelled from UA, Neito Monoma" Aizawa declared over his attempt at defense. "Harassment of your classmates will not be tolerated, nor will belittlement of the very real threats they faced. UA students have died before, did you know? One of my classmates was murdered in our second year," he continued. "It was only their competence and an abundance of luck through which we avoided 20 funerals for 1-A, and you would wish on them a repeat experience. The world of heroics has no place for that behavior, Monoma. Thank you for revealing your true colors before your carelessness hurt anyone."


So saying, Shota Aizawa departed down the hall, dragging Neito Monoma—still shocked speechless, but now with tears streaming down his face as he realized what was happening—behind him to the main office.


Not a single student present dared to speak.


Sighing, Vice Principal Miss Whisper stood from Kan's desk and stepped out after them.


"That's always a shame," she mused aloud, as though someone else had spoken across the school to summon 1-B's homeroom teacher instead of her. "I'll be needed to assist with the paperwork, if you'll excuse me." No one present dared so much as blink until she was down the hall after the two and out of sight.


"Oh… Oh hell," Itsuka Kendo finally muttered, looking genuinely as though she were about to be sick.


Momo saw the tears building and shook off her shock enough to grab the green-faced redhead and escort her quietly to the restroom for a breakdown.


Tetsutetsu just shivered, still feeling as though he had come so close to death itself.


Even Hitoshi Shinso, who by all rights ought to have been pleased with the now-open seat in the Hero Course, still seemed more shocked than anything. Whatever he'd wanted or been planning, it wasn't this.


Katsuki gave one last shudder, shaking off the intimidation much as a dog shakes off water.


"Well," he huffed, "looks like you've got a good chance at getting your seat, if I don't beat you into the ground on my way to first place," he told Hitoshi. Turning to the rest of their audience, Katsuki added, "Welcome to Heroics, extras. If you can't take the heat, be glad they won't let you in the kitchen." Warning duly delivered, he stalked off.


He had training to complete, after all, and this was a more perfect punishment for that smug blond trivializing the worst day of Katsuki's life than any beating he could deliver, in the end.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

"Hi again!" Nejire cheered, leaping onto Izuku's shoulders when they met again in the park that weekend. "I heard you guys got attacked, wow! I remember my first time facing villains, it was super-scary!" Her smile fell for a moment. "Your classmates in the hospital are going to be alright, right?"


"Yeah," Izuku sighed, "but it was scary. And, I mean, they say the surgery to reattach Iida-kun's leg will… it just worries me."


"Un!" Nejire nodded seriously. "Have you been to visit anybody?"


"I don't even know where they're staying," Izuku confessed.


"That's sad, you should ask. I totally get my friends numbers after we meet, every time!"


"I-I remember," Izuku muttered, recalling how she'd gotten his contact information and blown up his phone twice the past week with random streams of questions/comments. 'Oh, I'm a terrible friend, I bet Iida-kun could really use a friendly face.' Izuku squared his shoulders. "You're right! I'll try to figure out how to visit him later!" 'Even if I need to visit every hospital in Musutafu until I find him!'


"Awesome!" Nejire cheered. "Now, we're training! What do you want to do?"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

"Hey, Nejire-chan," Izuku asked when they took a break from spreading One For All's power through his legs to see what happened, "I have a question." He was on his back, resting as he watched the clouds.


"Shoot! Oh, that's was an invitation, by the way, not an instruction, though you totally could shoot things like a BB-gun by flicking your fingers I bet, like Son Aīpa flicking dice from the top of Taipei 101, right? Pew-pew! Pew-pew!"


"Aha… Right, I guess. Um, so, the Sports Festival."


"What about it?"


"There was… this Gen Ed student who approached us, talking about transferring into the Hero Course? How does that work?"


"Oh, yeah! That's how Yuyu joined the Hero Course, she's my best friend. Her Quirk lets her make people hallucinate if she touches them, but it won't work on robots and we got split up from attending the same junior high, so she got wrecked during the entry exam practical," Nejire recalled, snickering sadly.


"But she won the Sports Festival and transferred over?" 'If she's a 3rd-year now,' Izuku mused, 'then this was either last year or the year before. I watched all three days of those performances, so I probably saw her! I should look that up again.'


"Logical ruse~!" Nejire sang happily.


"Huh?"


"You technically don't need to win the Sports Festival, it's just that a non-Heroics course student is guaranteed an offer if they win," Nejire revealed with a cheeky grin. "Ooh, that one looks like a puppy! So cute!"


"I guess…" Izuku agreed weakly. "So, if they don't need to win…"


"What do you know about the Sports Festival's set-up?" Nejire prompted.


"That's… well, there's always three events," he started muttering, "with games for the people already disqualified in between so everyone can still put on a good showing. Scavenger hunts, kickball, dodgeball, freeze tag, tag-teaming the robots- Oh! Wow, I feel really stupid," he sighed, "I never realized those robots that popped up as obstacles a few times were what they'd use in the entry exam, I should've been more prepared…" He grit his teeth. "No, I will be more prepared this time, and in the future too."


Thus began a mutter fest in which Izuku recited every detail of the Sports Festivals he'd watched previously, from the order and nature of the events to the fact that the TV showing put up photos of the Heroics students in their hero costumes with brief bios when focusing on someone.


Nejire mostly let him just go wild again—she'd found he'd get to generally good conclusions eventually on his own—although she occasionally tossed in a few details from her prior participation in her first and second year, like how the TV broadcast would have pictures of the students in their hero costumes for advertising purposes.


"…Hey, Nejire-chan-senpai," he wondered, "are they going to be taking photos of us in our costumes?" 'I still haven't gotten around to replacing my mask.'


"Nah, they'll probably use pictures from your Heroics 101 exercises. You had a few of those before the attacks, right?"


"Battle trials in our first class, then sparring and discussions before we practiced the strategic use of force in later classes, until our rescue training got interrupted," Izuku affirmed.


"Great! They'll probably use those, then, unless you get called in for a photo op," she assured him. "Ooh, I bet I should look some of those up for our next lesson, and see what we can find for inspiration. Maybe I'll show you some of my class exercises too, so you'll know what to aim for!"


"You can do that?" Izuku boggled at the implications.


"Yuppers! The school library has all the classes' recordings kept on record for reference, it's this biiiiiig database," she confirmed. "You just have to sign in with your ID and maybe talk to the librarian, but you can view any recording you were part of at any time, just because!"


"Oh wow," Izuku said, and then he realized, 'All the activities? Does that mean the other classes' stuff as well?' He got even more excited, turning from his cloud watching. "Senpai, can we view, like, 1-B's Battle Trials if they did any? I don't know if Gen Ed does anything like that-,"


"Nope, not really! That was in answer to both your questions, by the way; Gen Ed doesn't do anything like that unless they're in a Sports Club that I might be misremembering or making up, I dunno, but you need teacher signature if you want to troll through the archives, though if there's a specific scene I think a class officer can requisition it."


Izuku gave her a long look as he parsed that fact.


"So I, as Vice Representative in 1-A, can potentially requisition 1-B's Battle Trial footage?"


"Probably! But it might better if you request both classes' footage from the librarian so it doesn't seem like you're actively undercutting your year mates or anything," she figured.


Izuku, who'd had a little experience with skeptical authority figures, nodded grimly.


"Right." 'This will all work more smoothly if…' "Ne… Nejire-chan, I have a bit of a crazy idea I want to run past you."


"Yeah?"


"Well, Plus Ultra in helping out our fellow students on top of…" He bit his lip, but, 'She already knows my Quirk came in late, it's safe.' "You know I didn't have my Quirk when I signed up to take the entry exam. If anything had gone differently… Until I got my acceptance letter," he confessed, "I thought I had failed the practical. I didn't know about Rescue Points. So I… There's a part of me that really likes the idea of helping Hitoshi Shinso get into the Hero Course. I could be wrong about him, and maybe he isn't such a great guy, but I want to try unless he proves he's-,"


"A creep? But yeah, I know what you mean, I helped Yuyu practice a bunch to qualify! Helping teach him what he's missed and practicing- ooh! They say 'the best way to learn is to teach,' so I bet this could be good practice for you too!"


So saying, Nejire popped to her feet and dragged Izuku up too.


"Okay, let's do this thing! Well, I mean, you're going to do it because me teaching more people would be sort of overkill, but I'm going to get a grand-student now! Gasp! I'm too young to be a grand-teacher, oh, why didn't I ever teach anyone about protection and proper timing, we need to fix that!"


"W-What! N-N-No we d-don't!"


"Nope, no can do, I'm going to teach you all about timing your blows and protecting against attacks!" Nejire smiled evilly at him. "Buck up, mister, it's time to spar!"

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

After a match (that turned into a set of matches for Nejire to wipe the floor with him), Izuku was properly exhausted. Even so, he took notes as she showed him where the library was at UA and introduced him to the digital camera recording storage systems. She even showed him the battle trial she'd been in early in her first year, (it was a different teacher, and a different scenario, but the same type of exercise,) and they laughed at the total disaster it had been when she kept spinning mid-flight and got dizzy.


That evening, two knocks on his front door heralded his guests arriving.


"Midoriya-san, thank you for having us over! I come bearing strawberry shortcake for dessert," Rikido declared to Inko when he entered the Midoriya abode.


"Oh, you're so kiiiind!" She burst into tears as she greeted him with a bow, to Rikido's slight alarm. "Izuku, you have such wonderfully polite friends, I'm so happy~!"


The scene repeated itself when Ochako arrived minutes later, with the addition of extra tears for her baby boy inviting a girl over, "and she was even sweet enough to bring mocha, oh, this is amazing!" Inko had wailed as she ushered in the second guest.


Izuku had just managed to keep from weeping, and he'd assured them this was a regular thing, so both classmates had rolled with it and just been very nicely polite the entire time.


It was after Inko left to get dinner ready that they got to business.


"So while Satou-kun looks over my weights and exercise regime," Izuku announced, producing a notebook, "Uraraka-san can-,"


"Deku-kun, you're allowed to use my first name since you're using Tsuyu-chan's," Ochako interrupted with a pout.


Again.


"Right! Ura- Ochako-chan, sorry, if you could look over this list of experiments and see what you already can answer, that'd be helpful before we start out."


"Can do," Ochako chirped, which was on its way to becoming their catch phrase.


As Izuku led Rikido to his room, (and suffered a minor panic over all the geeky All Might memorabilia he'd forgotten to hide, at least until Rikido had laughed and expressed admiration for the collection,) Ochako reviewed the list of tests.


Her eyebrows rose, and she found herself mildly embarrassed.


'I think I can only answer one of these already. Can I float liquids? No, or else I'd be floating blobs of water when I took a bath. But then… Have I ever floated a cup with water in it? I can't remember. Did the water weigh it down so it never floated, or did it just never happen even on accident,' she wondered. 'Then the ice… Yes, I floated snowballs a time or two, but ice cubes? And did they keep floating when they melted? It's really a tough question, I don't remember and I can't even guess. Wow, I honestly thought I knew my own power, but I really just focused on weight, while Deuk-kun is focusing on all the substances I could try to float. Oh, water in a container! Well, the human body is 70% water, thank you science class… but is it the same, with all the proteins and the bones? I really don't know,' she admitted.


So it went as she read down the list, growing slightly more glum and self-conscious. Izuku's tests weren't big things, involving cups and ice cubes and bits of string or handfuls of sand, but Ochako had never even considered most of them.


She wrote down the few answers she had, and with the boys still in Izuku's room she decided to test one or two immediately, before they got back.


"Midoriya-san, do you mind if I borrow a cup? I promise I won't break it."


"Oh, of course dear, here. Help yourself to anything in the fridge."


"Not that, I'm practicing my Quirk on it," Ochako admitted. She touched all five finger pads to it. "See?" She let go and it floated in the air.


"Oh my! That's such an interesting ability," Inko complimented as she bustled around, chopping vegetables and heating oil to fry with.


Ochako perked up again. "If you think this is cool, you should see the giant robots I floated." She bustled over to the sink and filled the cup, careful to keep her pinky extended.


'When water is added to a Zero-Gravity cup, the water remains affected and weighs the cup down, right. Release!' The cup was already pinned to the table, so nothing changed, but when she grabbed the cup again with water inside it… 'Hm… Okay, release!'


"Midoriya-san, do you have any ice cubes? And maybe another cup or two I could borrow, please?" Ochako requested.


By the time Izuku and Rikido left his room, Ochako had come to several interesting realizations.


"Deku-kun! Your tests are really smart, there's something strange with my power and I think it has to do with the cup's rim!" Ochako exclaimed excitedly.


"H-Huh?"


"Wow, you've been busy, Uraraka," Rikido complimented.


"Yeah, and look what I figured out! So, we've got these cups of water, and I never noticed if I ever floated a cup before—I'm really good at remembering my pinkie now, and before I could remember I wore mittens or we used gloves with handles—but sometimes the water floats with the cup if it's full when I float it, and sometimes it doesn't, and I think it's the shape of the cup, see?"


Ochako hurriedly grabbed one cup that was a straight cylinder and another that was conical (with the rim wider than the base), leaving an opened water bottle on the table.


"The water always floats up with the cup in the straight glass, but it doesn't with the glass that's wider at the top! I'm not sure it it's because there's more room for gravity to push it down or what, but I also used think there was sort of a mental switch I could almost flip to make it float, only it went away when I upped my weight limit, so maybe I need to practice that again!"


"O-Ochako-san, that's great," Izuku congratulated.


"I see some ice cubes, too," Rikido commented.


"Yeah! So they take time to melt, but it looks like if I float an ice cube the water keeps floating as it melts, even though I can't float water on my own," Ochako revealed. "Then I'm practicing with differences between floating a cup just of ice or a cup of ice water, and it turns out water with always float if it's in a water bottle like here and I float the bottle, even though I'm not touching the water!"


"Wait, before anything else, can you just touch the water bottle and then I'll unscrew the lid and see if it floats on its own?" Izuku requested.


"Ohmygosh Deku-kun that's a brilliant idea!"


It did, they learned.


"Eeeee! I'm learning more about my Quirk in an evening than I experimented with up to now," Ochako squealed, trying not to feel to silly about that fact as she stared at the bottle and its blobs of weightless water.


"Hey, I wouldn't go that far, this is water bottles and cups not robots the size of three cars," Rikido reminded her, prompting a blush. "But hey, I remember seeing something about trying to drink those floating bubbles of water in zero gravity, so what would happen if we tried pouring regular water into a floating blob? Would it cancel out, would it drip through, would it slowly get its gravity back?"


The answer unfortunately splattered the floor and kitchen, so they took a break to clean that up, at which point Inko announced that dinner was ready.


They ate, they effusively praised the food, they insisted on doing the dishes while Inko sampled their desserts, and then they moved to some ideas Izuku had that didn't involve water.


Instead, they involved string. Conveniently, there were shoes with laces available for use.


"Test 1: can I float a shoe just by grabbing its lace?" Ochako announced right before trying it as the boys watched eagerly.


The answer was yes.


"Hey, can you float a person just by grabbing their shoe?" Rikido asked.


"She should, it isn't different from touching their jacket," Izuku reasoned.


"That one I've done before, playing pranks at the dinner table when I was little," Ochako admitted. A quick demonstration had Rikido pushing himself off the ceiling.


"Wow, this is fun," he chuckled. "Hey, maybe some day at the gym you'll let me spar with you and Midoriya in zero gravity?"


"Let's! That sounds like a cool plan, Satou-kun!"


The next test was tying shoes together by their laces and seeing if floating one would effect the other. It didn't work if they were tied after the floating effect had been applied, obviously, but it definitely worked if they were tied by both laces.


Tying them only by one lace, however, was interesting in that it worked, but Ochako described it as requiring that extra bit of effort again, like a flipped switch in her head. After that was established, they tied the shoe around Izuku's wrist and tried to float him with it, which produced a similar effect.


Then Ochako tried to float a couch by touching just one cushion, which worked even though the cushion was removable.


Once they'd done a few experiments with furniture and things tied together, they moved onto people.


Rikido lifted Izuku in his arms, and then Ochako tried to float them both while only touching one of them. It was tricky, and she repeatedly failed to float them by touching Izuku, but there was that effort effect in floating them both by touching Rikido when he held Izuku.


What really caught Izuku's attention, however, was the discovery that it was reversed when he held Rikido (which he was able to do, since Rikido weighed far less than a car or refrigerator). Ochako had "maybe a bit of an easier time" floating them both without 'effort' by touching Rikido when Izuku held him off the ground, she claimed, but she could float them both by touching Izuku when he held Rikido, meaning it didn't relate to their respective weights and sizes.


When Rikido or Izuku lifted a chair, Ochako could float them and the chair just by touching the boy in question, but touching the chair simply would not remove the boy's gravity when she tried it.


"Maybe with both hands?" Rikido suggested after Ochako started growling in frustration at her failures.


"Oh, that's a good idea! Ochako-san, if you're getting frustrated, we can try the finger-pad tests," Izuku suggested.


"Oh fine, thanks," she grumbled, stuffing her face with a mocha Izuku grabbed off the tray she'd brought. *munch, munch* "Mruf." She swallowed. "Yeah, let's do that, this is giving me a headache. I call them beans, like a kitten's toe beans, though I guess pads are also okay, Deku-kun," she added with a faint smile.


Rikido chortled something under his breath and shared a conspiratorial grin with Inko.


The 'finger pad' series of experiments were something Izuku had come up with in case of Ochako's worst-case scenario.


He'd explained, with a bit of embarrassment, that a villain who really wanted to stop her Quirk could break, dislocate, or even cut off a finger to stop her from using that hand, since it required 5-points for her emitter effect to remove the gravity.


However, in thinking about ways to prevent this, Izuku had wondered whether it specifically required all 5 fingers on the same hand, or only 5 fingers total.


This question Ochako had felt confident in answering—she had carried boxes, etc., with her pinkies extended with both hands and not floated them, after all—but with everything she'd learned already about her abilities affecting ice and contained water, she felt it worth checking.


Try as she might, though, even using 8 finger beans, she couldn't float any object without 5 pads from one hand touching it in some combination.


"Still, it feels like something I might be able to do," she reflected at the end of the evening. "I've got the 'effort' feeling, only deeper, like I need to push harder just to touch the button, let alone press it down. I noticed it a few times trying to lift things in my weight range, and really early on when I tried to float people, but I got used to it. I can do that too, here, I just know it!" She clenched a fist in determination.


"Yeah, we'll see you keep getting better and better, Ochako-san!" Izuku promised.


"Here's to friends and to improving for the Sports Festival," Rikido toasted with his own glass.


"Kanpai!" Inko cheered, and they all laughed together before they parted for the night.

 

[Obloquy]

(Set after the USJ Attack)​

The first thing Mina does after she gets home, she cries.

She shakes off her dads' comforting arms, shuts herself up in the bathroom, and she just cries. Long, hard, with shoulder-shaking sobs that wrack her body, the type of ugly crying with snot that she'd never admit to but she just can't right now, and, and-

Her Papa comes in after a few minutes, because she's done this before, curled up in the bathtub with the shower running as she just lets go and stops worrying about her acid.

"'mot suff," she mumbles out, trying to bat away his arms.

"I don't care," he tells her, hugging her anyway. And he's safe, he's 'immune' to her acid with his skin growth Quirk, (and sometimes she wonders about how the thing that got her given up also got her a new family because they specifically took the girl they could help,) but Mina bursts out crying even harder as he pulls her close and pats her back under the shower's spray. "I love you, my sweet baby girl. I love you so much," he whispers in her ear and Mina just pulls him close and sobs all over him.

The floor is soaked by the time she's willing (able) to talk again, and she tries to make a move for cleaning up, but her Papa just asks her to talk about it, so she does.

She tells him about the trip to USJ ("Just like Universal Studios Japan, I swear! We totally made that joke,") and about the villains appearing ("Kan-sensei just knew something was wrong immediately and he started barking out orders,") and about being split up ("it was just like showering only worse, it was cold, I felt so useless, I should have helped them,") and fighting for their lives.

She tells him about finding the building, about Mashirao catching on fire, about the villains finding them, and about how she'd been so relieved when the teachers arrived that she melted handprints in the wall she'd been leaning on.

"Stop that," her Papa chides lovingly when she checks the bathtub reflexively. She doesn't know how much the bathtub cost to resist her acid, but even though they bought it so she could cut loose safely she still... "Don't worry about things, worry about yourself."

"Yeah." Mina hiccups. "That... Ojiro-kun actually said something like that in our introductions. He's a movie fan, too. I hope he's okay," she says, though what's she's thinking is that she'd like to check in on him.

She just has no clue how to do that.

"Well," Papa says, "I think this calls for an all night movie marathon until you feel better."

Mina giggles a little, though she's not sure...

She rolls with it anyway. Dad ran out to get fresh okra for a treat, they eat, they watch old movies, they scream, and then she goes to sleep during the credits of Covenant.

The next morning, Mina feels like crud.

She's sick, and it's sort of good she gets the day off from UA because she will be good for nothing today, she knows.

She drinks extra orange juice at breakfast and she makes a toast to Tenya because he likes it, right?

Then she remembers what state he's in, and she wishes she could check in with him, but she can't. Yeah. She feel like crud.

________________________________________________________________​

Koji's mother cries more than he does about it, oddly. She engulfs him in her arms when he gets home and he ends up comforting her about it.

He feels a little guilty thinking it, but Koji's really pretty proud of himself about everything.

He saved someone.

He saved Tenya's life without a doubt, according to three different teachers, and all he regrets is not moving faster, but he still got there in time to save Tenya anyway. He's not responsible for hurting the guy, but he's responsible for saving him.

That's a good feeling.

He gives Yuwai-chan a bunch of extra treats and feeds all the birds he can because he's so happy to be alive right now and everything-

Well. No. Not everything is looking up, people were hurt, but he helped people. Principal Nedzu personally congratulated him and All Might told him he was a hero in the aftermath.

Koji can't be upset about anything, when he remembers that.

(The fear hit him the next day, when he cuddles Yuwai-chan for hours and then goes to play with the animals at a nearby store because his hands won't stop shivering unless he's petting something, but in the end he feeds a few fish and he goes home that evening ready to return to school.)

(He wakes up twice from nightmares, but they're the formless jump scare kind, and he goes back to sleep after he treats himself to some hot milk tea.)

________________________________________________________________​

Eijiro Kirishima feels conflicted in the aftermath. He isn't really sure he did enough.

Rather.

The main thing he did was clean up Todoroki's mess, he thinks.

No. Not even that, he just convinced Shouto Todoroki to clean up his own mess. And.

It's not like he wants to blame the guy, because instinctively activating your Quirk in a panic situation is what he did too, just with less disastrous results. Shouto was just trying to survive.

But Shouto's survival almost came at the cost of people's lives. Kyoka Jirou only barely made it, and she'll be looking at some intensive recovery. Then there were the villains, and yeah those were villains, but killing people is wrong.

Of course, the corollary is that Shouto knew it was wrong too. As soon as he realized (courtesy of Eijiro shaking him,) he'd immediately moved to thaw and rescue everyone, both heir classmate and the trapped villains.

Really, it was just bad luck, because if he'd been dumped anywhere except the Flood Zone this wouldn't have been an issue.

Of course, if Eijiro had been dumped anywhere except the Flood Zone, Kyoka Jirou would be dead, so...

"...Man. Gah! I hate feeling like this," he complains to the ceiling when his thoughts won't stop spiraling mid-morning the day after. There's no school, due to repercussions from the attack, but he's got nothing to do.

So he grabs some dumbbells and lifts weights while watching Crimson Riot's old interviews.

'The guy's, like, 73 now, right?' Eijiro reflects as he swaps hands after enough reps. 'Man. And Kan-sensei said they worked together once before he retired! That's like, the coolest thing ever!' Then he wilts. 'Of course, now Kan-sensei might retire too. Because of his injuries. Because I wasn't there to help when those three made a difference, because I was stuck with...'

He cuts off that train of thought, because even if he hadn't helped beyond pressing Shouto to do the right thing, he'd... he'd...

He's watching an old interview wherein Crimson Riot talks about having to second-guess himself in both directions -- asking how it could've gone worse as much as how it could've gone better -- when it clicks.

If Shouto was sent to any zone other than the water area, then yes, immediate freezing would've been the safest response, so the guy wasn't wrong to do it instinctively.

Similarly, yes, if Eijiro wasn't in the ice to break free then a bunch of people would've frozen to death. But.

On reflection, Eijiro admits that if he nor Shouto were in the Flood Zone, then other students would be there instead, and that shark guy would've killed people.

So with Kyoka okay in the end, it really did turn out for the best. Like, if the shark guy went after her instead -- or heck, any of the other dozen villains they pulled out to thaw -- then Shouto having the presence of mind to not freeze everything would've ended with his other classmates torn apart in seconds.

"So he saved them from the villains, then I saved them from him. That's... yeah. And we're kids," Eijiro finishes, looking his reflection in the eye. "We'll learn. We'll get better." He gives a manly grin, and then a brief frown. "Ah. Crap. Todoroki was pretty torn up, even if he was all quiet about it, and I bet... Yeah, I totally might've missed everybody else being upset. But we pulled through, and it's the villains' fault for attacking!" He nods decisively. "That's it! Tomorrow, I'm going to 100% make sure everyone knows how awesome they are, no regrets!" Eijiro promises.

He sleeps without dreams and wakes up bright and early.

________________________________________________________________​

Izuku ends up in Recovery Girl's office again. He hasn't been to see her too often, and he really defends himself pretty well he thinks when she demands to know what he was thinking, and in the end she heals him even if it takes a few hours more to be sure he's recovering properly for safety's sake.

Then it's All Might -- Toshinori Yagi, really, he's in his skeletal form -- escorting his mother in and that delays them another half-hour as they're treated for tear-induced dehydration.

His mom needs a few minutes more to be treated, and Recovery Girl wants to talk to her privately, so he's left alone with All Might.

"I'm proud of you," All Might assures him. "I'm... unhappy that you risked your life, but you only had to because the villains chose to attack." His face twists bitterly. On the inside, he's self-recriminating, for using up his time limit so sloppily that morning, but Izuku can't see that.

All Izuku sees is his mentor, the first person to believe in him, and who's just declared his pride in Izuku's accomplishments.

He's beaming all the way home.

They get takeout that evening because Mom is too worn out to cook, and they watch an All Might documentary as they eat.

As the credits roll, the phone rings, and Izuku promises Aunt Mitsuki that he's okay even as he talks about what he did with Kacchan and Fumikage Tokoyami (whose name Katsuki still didn't know to tell his parents afterward) in all the fighting.

"Has Kacchan given any thought to earplugs or a hearing aid?" Izuku asks when he's assured her yet again that his leg's okay now.

Mitsuki Bakugou sighs. "You're still worried about that? His social standing's trash, but he knows his own body, and no tests turned up anything."

"I think he's teaching himself to read lips," Izuku confesses, having no idea whether Katsuki would even do it intentionally. "I mean, it's possible his hearing is protected against the explosions, but detonations are a side-effect, his quirk is generating a chemical, and that doesn't have to do with... I don't know..." He shrugs.

"Yeah, well..." He can practically hear Aunt Mitsuki shrug across the phone line, and that's the sign that this branch of the conversation won't go anywhere.

"His birthday's coming up, is he doing anything for it?" Izuku asks.

"He's still got his, 'no parties, no presents,' belief," Aunt Mitsuki counters. Ever since he turned 10, Kacchan had decided that buying presents was stupid, and he had enough sense of fairness to declare he didn't want to receive any either, so no one should bother. "That kid."

"Yeah," Izuku sighs, and oops! Because there's plenty to admire about the blond, but there's plenty to criticize as well, like how he treats people. (Izuku worst of all, but that's mostly because Izuku kept butting in throughout their childhood when Kacchan was being mean or trying to show off in a bad way. Katsuki's used up all his patience with him now, Izuku figures.)

(He still keeps hoping he'll earn some respect back, though. Whether or not they're ever more than family friends like they used to be.)

"We might have you and Inko over for dinner, though. It won't be a party or anything," Mitsuki offers.

Izuku gives a little strangled laugh, because he and Kacchan can mutually exist with minimal blow-ups around their parents like they do in class, but it isn't what he'd call a fun thought.

"It's a school night, and I have tutoring this weekend that'll eat up my lunch hours," Izuku dismisses politely, because Aunt Mitsuki likes him enough to let him get away with that, which is a high compliment from her. then an idea occurs to him. Not quite an olive branch, but... "Aunt Mi, does Kacchan still work out while watching anime for inspiration? Or All Might's news appearances? I might get him a series as a gift anyway but I don't know what he has."

"Lemme go raid his closet," she laughs. "Who knows, maybe his balls've dropped enough I'll find his porn stash too."

Izuku laughs, but he's uncomfortable, because he hadn't planned on quite that scale of a privacy violation.

Still, his Aunty knows what's okay, he guesses, and it's not like he could stop her now that she's thought of it.

________________________________________________________________

Tenya sleeps.

It's dark, and he's comfortable, pumped full of drugs in preparation for the reattachment surgery, so he sleeps.

Sometimes he wakes up occasionally, and it's his mother or his brother or his father by his bedside -- he hasn't been alone for a minute since they brought him in, no that he knows it -- but he never remembers what he says or what they say to him.

The surgery won't be until next week; his leg was cut off partly through the engine, and reattaching it will need special concoctions to make his body ready and enable them to fit the bio-mechanical bits back together properly, so he needs several days of prep work and it's easiest if he sleeps through it all.

So Tenya sleeps.

But he also dreams, and not many of them are bad.

His friends all escaped safe, and surely that's the highest achievement of a hero, even if he wasn't the one to summon aid.

So Tenya sleeps.

________________________________________________________________​

Shouto Todoroki fumes.

For the first time anyone can remember, he explicitly requests extra training from his father that evening. His reasoning is simple.

"I felt my performance against actual villains was insufficient."

It's a blind.

He doesn't use his fire, but his explanation about the villain dumping him in water is acceptable enough for Endeavor to let this defiance pass, as Shouto is willingly put through a brutal regime.

He pushes himself all the while. It's good he has school off tomorrow, as he'll need to recover.

"Fuyumi," he whispers as she helps him to bed late that night.

"Shouto?" She tucks him in, brushes his hair off his forehead in a way that aches in his chest, and waits.

"Natsuo... he worked as a life guard some time back, right? And you did some certification for working with kids? Emergency medicine?" He's stretching, but he thinks he remembers discussion of this?

"Yes," she says in a way that suggests he's right for the wrong reasons.

"Can you teach me? I want to learn... one of my classmates, she almost drowned." And it was all my fault, he doesn't say. Voicing fault or blame in this house was just something Endeavor could leverage against him when he-

It wasn't something he was willing to say, no matter how much he might think it.

"I'm not qualified to- I'll look into your options for learning, and we'll talk more tomorrow," Fuyumi promises.

He tells her she doesn't need to stay, but he listens as her footsteps depart down the hall until he can't hear anything further, and then he listens to his own breathing until he falls asleep.

Shouto Todoroki dreams, and it isn't pleasant. Still, he's had worse from training before in the past few years, and at least he'll have most of the next day to recover, with Endeavor busy chasing a lead on Stain in Rairrosu.

It could be worse, he figures.

 

[Obloquy]

Monday. 14 days until the Sports Festival.


Hitoshi Shinso was sore from his workout the day before, so he was taking it easy.


He wasn't in the best shape to start with, he knew—not that he'd have much chance without some guidance on how to get anything from his workouts—but he couldn't really practice his Quirk so practicing the physical aspects were all he could do to prepare for the Sports Festival.


Come lunchtime, though, someone came looking for him.


"Akko-san? How can I help you?" Hitoshi asked as he scratched Kuro behind the ears. Dogs weren't as great as cats, but any furry thing full of love for people was okay in his book.


He tried to keep his eyes on 1-D's vice representative, who'd been more than decent to him so far, (unlike Mahimaru, the jerk,) instead of lingering on the 1-A student by her shoulder.


'I'm not guilty,' he told himself. 'One bad experience doesn't change how lucky they they all are. …I need them riled up and ready to answer me at the Sports Festival, instead of just ignoring me to bulldoze over everything I'm trying for.'


"Midoriya was looking for you, about the Sports Festival," Tsume barked. "I figured I'd cut in before Mahimaru started blackening your name, since gossip says Midoriya's a good guy. Whatever it is, you two can work it out."


An abrupt surge of gratitude filled Hitoshi and he let his lips quirk into a (somewhat demented-looking, he'd been told,) smile at her.


She'd relayed the 1-A student's name, given him an idea about the upcoming conversation, and assured him that it probably wouldn't involve anything horrible being thrown at him, so yeah, he figured Tsume was good people. It helped that she'd answer talked to him without issue and she'd taken him jogging previously when he wanted to get in shape.


"Okay," Hitoshi said neutrally, as he turned his gaze on the Hero Course student, who shifted uncomfortably. 'Squeamish much? Is it because he knows about my Brainwashing, or something else?' "You wanted to talk about the Sports Festival?" Hitoshi pressed as Tsume stalked off again with Kuro.


"Oh! Right, I did," Izuku blurted. Once more, Hitoshi felt the little ping of his Quirk's potential to take control, but he didn't reach for it. "Um, so I was talking to my senpai and she told me about her friend who transferred into Heroics…"


Keeping a calm poker face, Hitoshi straightened up and paid very close attention.


He'd found recordings of the few students who'd won the Sports Festival in previous years from Gen Ed, and them showing up as Heroics Students the next year, which was part of how he'd known about this, but he hadn't believed any of them were at the school currently.


'None of the last 2 years' victors were from outside the Heroics Course,' he reflected as Izuku finally got to the point. 'This would mean… oh. Oh yes.' He smiled faintly again and paid very close attention as Izuku spoke.


___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


'Yuyu Haya, huh. Well, unless he's playing a really stupid prank on me,' which Hitoshi didn't discount, but he considered it unlikely, 'then this is an absolute goldmine. I wonder why he's helping me, though? I'm supposed to be competing with him… And Izuku Midoriya? I remember that name.'


"It seems a little too good to be true," Hitoshi commented carefully, hoping to prod out a bit more of his benefactor's motivations.


"I guess…?" Izuku said.


'Either he's really good at playing dumb, or he's being genuine,' Hitoshi figured. He wasn't sure which was worse: that he was being fooled if the first, or that someone so thick had done so well in the entry exam due to their powerful Quirk in the case of the second.


"I'm wonder why you want to help me, that's all. I did some research on my competition in the Hero Course. Midoriya, didn't you score sixth in the entry exam?"


"Yes," Izuku agreed after a moment, "but I thought I'd failed because I only destroyed one robot, worth zero points." Hitoshi blinked as he remembered the towering 0-point robot from his area, trying to figure out…


'The 0-point robot? But that thing was massive! How on Earth does- did he know it was coming? No, it sounded like he knows how lucky he is, like he wishes he'd done better… Maybe his area went differently?' "The giant robot that smashed several buildings? How did that happen?"


"I… hadn't had a Quirk at all when I signed up for the exam, I just thought I'd do my best." Izuku bit his lip and worked in a little lie he'd come up with while discussing his cover story with All Might. "I was expecting, like, Star Wars droid-sized robots, not stuff that could crush a city bus," he admitted. "Then at the end, after I ran around in a panic, I just knew I had to help this girl who was in danger from being caught under rubble the giant robot knocked over. It was about to step on her, so I… I just had to help her. But if she hadn't been in danger, if my Quirk hadn't kicked in, I couldn't have done it. Except if I was in Gen Ed, maybe I could have. So I see myself and I want to help you."


Hitoshi stared, trying to get his thoughts under control. 'Izuku Midoriya… You're a lucky idiot. You're the lucky idiot to end all lucky idiots. But at least you're self-aware of that, so it's forgivable.'


Hitoshi nodded. It was slow, and it was wary, but he nodded.


Izuku beamed. "Great! I won't let you down."


"What were you thinking of then, for preparation?"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

"You're really okay showing me your Quirk and your classmates' Quirks, as well as 1-B?" Hitoshi checked when they met at the library after class that day.


"W-Well, it's not just you."


"Hiya! Midoriya-kun, is this the 1-C guy you mentioned?" Tohru Hagakure asked. "Nice to meet you, I'm Tohru Hagakure, from 1-A!"


"Yeah, this is Hitoshi Shinso," Izuku introduced as the invisible girl bowed. "Is anyone else coming?" 'I'm really not sure how many people I can juggle, even if we all fit in the study room.'


"I think it's just me today, since I need all the help I can get."


"You do?" Hitoshi wondered. He still didn't really get why Izuku was helping him, but he'd thought folding him in with existing preparations they were doing anyway would be it.


"Oh! Well, not just transferring into Heroics, but they might transfer students out who do poorly? I was the literal last person at the cut-off in the practical," she admitted, "and my fitness isn't that great, so I need to stand out or I might get moved."


"Two sides of the same coin," Hitoshi deadpanned with a nod. If not for an open seat in 1-B he might try scheming against her… but he got the impression that it wouldn't be productive for him. Getting transferred into Heroics and then out again might be worse than failing to get in at all.


"Right! So let's get started." Izuku input his student ID code and pulled up the footage from Class 1-A's battle trials on the display.


Tohru Hagakure and Yuga Aoyama versus Fumikage Tokoyami and Eijiro Kirishima


"Ooh, hey, this is me! I was super proud of being MVP here, just watch!" Tohru cheered.


"…Wait," Hitoshi asked a minute into it. "Are you naked in your costume?"


"Shhhh! Don't just say it like that," Tohru wailed, embarrassed. "I have to be for my costume! I can't do clothes!"


"It's one of the things I'm going to try working with her about, though that's less for the Sports Festival and more just general improvement," Izuku agreed. "It's too big a weakness to leave undefended for a pro."


"Oh come on," she whined as the battle continued on the screen, "I do fine with it."


"If they set up a fog machine they'd see your hollow area in the vapor," Izuku reasoned, "or they could spray water and see you splash in puddles. Ashido-san's acid would be bad, and what would you do if Todoroki-kun spread ice everywhere?"


"If you had to fight Todoroki, you'd break every bone in your body and still lose," Tohru snarked.


"Yeah," Izuku admitted, which defused a good bunch of her outrage, "but I'm working on it, and so should you."


"Hagakure," Hitoshi interrupted, "can you point out where you are on the camera screens?"


"I don't really remember, but I'll do my best," she said.


They watched that video twice, the second time with Tohru relaying her team's strategy and how they'd tested it by having her stick her hand in Yuga's laser during the prep period, as well as discussing risks in trying it on Dark Shadow.


"But you know, you're really lucky you could sneak up on Dark Shadow," Izuku reflected as the recording wound to a close.


"Huh?"


"I mean, I didn't think of this before, but Dark Shadow isn't made of flesh and blood, right? His eyes are made of shadow, with no… um…"


"Rods or cones? Optic nerves?" Hitoshi volunteered.


"Right! Those, yeah. I don't know if you're invisible to infrared or ultraviolet, but if you didn't think about whether Dark Shadow could see you…"


"Yeah," Tohru laughed, "I guess I lucked out. But only in the same way Iida and Ochako-chan lucked out by having you to ask for this next round. The both of them were totally bragging once or twice that Midoriya helped them out with the strategy they used to win," she added to Hitoshi.


"I mean, the throwing things was all them, I just though of a clever way to apply her Quirk," Izuku demurred.


"Yeah, but he's really good at that stuff it seems. Shinso-kun, what's your Quirk? I bet Midoriya can come up with a kickass application or two!"


"Let's watch the match first and we'll talk about me later," Hitoshi demurred drily.


Tenya and Ochako's performance did turn out to be educational, at least.


"But she didn't touch him, she just touched his costume's chest plate," he argued when he saw it in action. "Why would it make his body weightless but not the stuff he added back on after when she didn't touch his body?"


"That's what I wondered about, too," Izuku agreed. "My best guess is that it works like highlighting text in a document. When she presses her finger beans to something, it generates an aura or effect that 'selects' everything present and then changes the 'font' to 'zero gravity,' but if you then type a new line or new text it comes out in the original 'default font' having gravity."


"I'm pretty sure they fixed that bug in all but the oldest or most low-brow text editors," Tohru opined.


"Ahahaha… I only have so much allowance, so I just use the original options on our computer and buy more merchandise instead," Izuku admitted, "so that bug still gets me every now and then."


Then they moved on to Izuku's match, and Hitoshi swallowed hard as the uppercut tore through three ceilings.


"Okay," he breathed, "I am significantly re-evaluating my chances of beating you."


"Just so long as he doesn't break his arm in an earlier opponent. Besides, we might not even be fighting, it's a Sports Festival," Tohru reminded him with a pat on the shoulder.


"A-A-Actually, I reviewed all the previous year's recordings I had, plus some more they keep here in the library, and so… I guess we should probably discuss the Festival's set-up?"


"That sounds like a good idea," Hitoshi agreed.


"Yeah! If you've realized something, go ahead and spill!" Tohru seconded.


Izuku was very thankful that they'd grabbed an unreserved study room, or else the librarian might have scowled at them by now.


"Right then," he muttered, marshaling his thoughts. "UA's Sports Festival… there are always 3 main events for each year, in the same order, with a similar theme," he explained. "First will be a free-for-all mass elimination round, something like dodgeball, a foot race, and obstacle course, mass freeze tag, red rover with quirks, musical chairs with the chairs being robots wearing saddles, or that type of thing."


"Robots wearing saddles?"


"That type of thing…"


Hitoshi and Tohru shared a look—despite him accidentally gazing at her forehead—of mutual mental pain at what UA could think up.


"Yeah, that was the mass elimination for the 3rd year students last year, and the 1st-year students 4 years ago, but I doubt we'll see it this year; UA doesn't like to repeat its tricks too often," Izuku mused.


"…When you say 'mass elimination,' how many people get through?" Hitoshi wondered.


"It's as many as 80, no less than 42," Izuku answered, "at least for the 1st-years' events. Since there are usually about 40 Heroics students, that means no matter what 2 non-Heroics students are guaranteed the opportunity to progress to the next round, so anyone who does that can at least signal possible interest in transferring to Heroics."


"Which doesn't mean you should get past the first event and stop trying," Tohru added. "Plus Ultra! Get to the last event and show off, or even win it all!"


"At least try to place as a semi-finalist, and the teachers will probably arrange something," Izuku agreed, "but if you want to be a hero for real then go for the win, and-," He grinned at Hitoshi. "-I'll see you at the the top."


Hitoshi gave a brief, desert-dry chuckle. "I'll see you there." Then, more seriously, "You guys don't mind that you're training up a potential rival?"


"Kan-sensei says we shouldn't just look at it as competing against each other. We're competing to be our best selves," Tohru recited, "and in the field, in real life as heroes, we'll all be on the same team, fighting villains. In 5 years, we might team up on a mission and you save my life, but that won't happen if I sabotage you, which would be a bad way to go down, right?"


"To say the least, I guess," Hitoshi agreed. It even made sense to him, somewhat: in the short term these people were his rivals, but that didn't mean they would be his enemies the way actual villains were.


'Heroes might not be all on the same team, but we're all on the same side, aren't we? I hadn't thought of it that way before,' Hitoshi reflected. 'Maybe I can even… We'll see.'


They watched Izuku's Battle Trial a second time, Izuku explaining as they went where things went wrong and how they'd coped—admitting he'd forgotten Tsuyu was present until she bound Katsuki got a laugh, at least—before moving onto the next match.


"What exactly can she make?" Hitoshi wondered, seeing Momo's Quirk at work.


"Anything!" Tohru exclaimed.


"I think she has size limits, and she has to know how it's made, but basically," Izuku agreed. "It's a really powerful Quirk, so no wonder she got in on recommendation."


"Well, given it was her uncle who recommended her," Tohru joked.


"Who's her uncle?" Hitoshi wondered.


"Hangaku Yaoyorozu-sensei, he teaches 3rd-year classes, especially Support Course students," Izuku answered. "He's the Metal Hero: Kinzokubutsu. I think he designed and created most of the robots UA uses for the entry practical; we'll probably see those pop up in the first or second event as obstacles."


"Not the third? You didn't mention the second event's pattern, after the mass elimination," Hitoshi noted.


"Oh right!" Izuku decided to pause Shouto's icy display before the main event, so it'd keep being impressive without him distracting Hitoshi. "So it goes: mass elimination, team competition, single combat, and always in that order. First event weeds out everyone who doesn't really want to be there and gives an opportunity-,"


"For non-Heroics students to show interest, you mentioned," Hitoshi interjected. "then the team competition…" If he were feeling particularly skeptical, Hitoshi would suspect it was a way to weed out non-Heroics students so the Hero Course wouldn't look bad, since the superior Heroics students would have training and experience working together, leaving non-Heroics students with the underachiever's no one wanted or each other.


Izuku's claim that Gen Ed students could transfer without winning—and winning the Sports Festival itself had struck Hitoshi as nearly impossible, and he only felt at all confident due to his quirk's focus on human targets, not that he wouldn't have tried anyway—had immensely reframed the narrative for Hitoshi.


He still wanted to check if it was true, but if it was, then he had upperclassmen he could ask for advice and it became feasible that he could talk to the teachers about his dream without being laughed at for his 'villainous Quirk' like in previous schools.


That was a good feeling, even if he tried to be wary of false hope.


"Mass elimination, team competition, then one-on-one. What type team events and one-on-one contests are we talking about?"


"There's a lot of variety in the team events, but team sizes can vary between 2 and 8 people," Izuku answered. "If teams are 5 people or more instead of 2-4, they're random assigned, but teams of smaller groups can self-organize, usually." He frowned. "I think the assigned groupings are more common in later years' games, to represent heroes teaming up in the field, while the 1st-year students get a break and can show off in teams with their friends."


"Great, friends, just the thing I need," Hitoshi deadpanned.


He nearly swallowed his own tongue when Tohru glomped him.


"Don't be such a sourpuss, Shinso-kun! If we get that far, do you want to be on a team with me? I'll be your friend."


"I… I'll think about it," he hedged, not quite daring to reciprocate her hug.


"Then for single combat, I've seen gladiatorial combat matches, I've seen tied-turtle wrestling, I've seen chanbara duels, I've seen pool-top sparring… There's a lot of options, but there's always a combat aspect and it's always 1-on-1, because they need to eliminate people and get the top 4 to the victor's podium," Izuku finished.


"Okay, I see… It's getting late, so how about we watch this last match and meet up tomorrow at lunch?" Hitoshi suggested.


"Sure thing!" Tohru agreed.


"Yeah, then we'll pull up 1-B's matches. Do you mind if another friend or two shows up?" Izuku checked.


Hitoshi shrugged.


Then Izuku hit PLAY and Shouto froze the whole building, prompting the purple-haired boy to drastically re-evaluate his chances of winning the festival.


Again.


'…Yuyu Haya, huh? Yeah, I'll definitely need to ask for some tips,' he decided.

 

[Obloquy]

13 Days until the Sports Festival.


"Deku-kun! So we're watching 1-B's Battle Trials?" Ochako cheered as she slid into the reserved room.


"Did she just call you Deku?" Hitoshi wondered.


"It's a play on the kanji in my name and 'dekiru,' like 'I can do it,'" Izuku explained with a nervous laugh. "Ochako-san, this is Hitoshi Shinso, hoping to transfer in from Gen Ed."


"Nice to meet you!"


"Good luck with that, kero. I'm a little jealous; my best friend went to another school, but if she knew transferring was possible, kerogero, then Habuko-chan might be in our year here instead."


"This is Tsuyu-chan," Izuku introduced as she arrived with Tohru.


"And you remember me, right?" Tohru put an arm around Hitoshi again, though he still didn't quite return the hug.


"Wow… I guess you guys aren't all like that angry blond," Hitoshi reflected uncomfortably.


"Bakugou-chan has anger issues," Tsuyu agreed.


"Yeah, but he's really competent too! He and Deku-kun are like, eternal rivals fated to duke it out for first place!" Ochako cheered.


'Th-That's one way to put it… I guess, since I haven't gone into much detail… Yeah, I'll leave it at that with Ochako-chan,' Izuku decided.


"Katsuki Bakugou… he's the #1 student from the entry exam's practical, right?" Hitoshi remembered.


"His score of 77 was entirely Villain Points," Tsuyu confirmed. "He didn't save a single comrade."


Hitoshi twitched guiltily. 'Looking back, if I knew about Rescue Points… I think I was in the blond's area, seeing him go crazy with the explosions, and I was mostly angry he didn't leave many robots for me to try fighting. If I knew, I'd have teamed up with a few people or helped them out instead of seething. That's embarrassing to look back on…'


'Though why my Quirk is "villainous" while the guy who could explode people or level buildings is a hero automatically…' Hitoshi shook his head to swallow his anger, focusing on what they were there for.


"So, are we going to watch this or not?"


"Here, I've pulled dup the first one," Izuku declared.

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu and Togaru Kamakiri versus Itsuka Kendo and Shihai Kuroiro​

"Before we even see them in action, kero," Tsuyu interrupted, "does anyone want to make predictions?"


"That seems a little early, right?" Tohru pointed out.


"Really, I want to see what Izuku-kun can predict this time," Tsuyu admitted.


"500 yen says Itsuka Kendo wins. She's on the hero team, right?" Hitoshi checked.


"Villains are listed first," Ochako confirmed. "You know her?"


"She placed 5th in the entry exam, so she's a top contender, even if Tetsutetsu placed 8th with one point less than Midoriya," Hitoshi reasoned.


"Interesting, kero."


"Deku-kun, do you know anything about their quirks?" Ochako wondered.


"Well… Kamakiri-san has those mandible growths and green skin, but there's probably more to it than that. Tetsutetsu-san might have something related to his eyes, but there's only a 70% chance that a given passive mutation is anatomically related to a secondary transformation or emitter aspect of a Quirk. It's really too early to tell," Izuku decided as he produced a notebook, "but once I see them in action we can stop halfway and I'll make a guess or two."


"Just remember my bet," Hitoshi said.


"That Testutetsu guy seemed pretty pumped, so I'll put 500 yen on him," Tohru decided, producing her own coin to ante up.


Izuku hit PLAY.


It was immediately noticeable that the villains lacked good cooperativeness, as their 5-minute prep period saw them breaking out in a fight as Togaru tried to make Tetsutetsu stayed behind while he went to fight Itsuka; it seemed they'd been rivals at their dojo since childhood or something, and he wanted to win.


Tetsutetsu rejected being locked out of the action, and both promptly displayed their Quirks as they fought, Tetsutetsu turning his skin to steel while Togaru grew metal blades from his green-tinged skin.


Hitoshi hit the pause button.


"Your face looks like you thought of something."


Izuku, in the midst of a mutter-fest, needed a moment to react.


"Oh! Well, just in that series of exchanges, I saw some really interesting things about their Quirk interactions," Izuku admitted.


"Really? That fast? …Is it about Kamakiri cutting Tetsutetsu?" Ochako realized.


"I think it might be more of a 'Perfect Shield, Perfect Spear,' fallacy issue, kero."


"But the spear usually wins, unless the shield is All Might," Tohru pointed out.


"Midoriya?" Hitoshi prompted, surprised at how comfortable he was feeling with them. 'Feels almost like friends, I guess. They aren't scared of me.'


"Right! At the first series of exchanges, Kamakiri swiped at Tetsutetsu and nicked him through his iron skin, but then Tetsutetsu shouted something and went on the offensive. At that point, Kamakiri's blades started scraping off in sprays of sparks, meaning Tetsutetsu can make his skin harder than it started out when he transformed," Izuku listed.


"Tetsutetsu can get harder, but Kamakiri can't get sharper, then?" Tohru wondered.


"It'd be a stamina battle, since getting harder than default probably costs something," Hitoshi estimated.


"Yeah…" Izuku zoomed in. "Usually, the eyes are weak points for body-reinforcing Quirks, but Tetsutetsu-san's eyes change color to look like his metal skin, so that won't work. But then…" He rewound and replayed the last few seconds of the clip. "Kamakiri-san withdrew his blades, but grew new ones, and these blades could cut Tetsutetsu-san again."


"So he can make them sharper but he has to regrow them, like he sharpens them inside his body," Ochako figured.


"Probably. I don't know how a fight between them would end, but I'm betting if they're fighting with each other already, Kendo-san's team will probably win," Izuku finished.


"As long as neither of them act like Bakugou-chan, teamwork should carry the day," Tsuyu agreed.


Izuku started playing again and they kept watching.


"Teamwork, huh? It looks like she's all alone," Hitoshi commented when the Hero Team entered, only for Itsuka to be the only one on-screen, heading through the building.


"You could say the same thing about my team; we don't know Kuroiro's Quirk," Tohru countered.


"It's just her hands so far, maybe other body parts? But she increases the size of her hands to increase the strength of her blows," Izuku muttered as he saw her punch through a door and enter the fight. "I guess the main question is whether the mechanism is biological or quantum, because it'd have very different details if she adds molecules or just alters their relationship. Ah!"


"What is it, what did you see?" Tohru asked urgently as she paused the clip.


"What did you mean by 'quantum,' for that matter, Deku-kun?"


"O-O-Oh! Um, I mean, well… So we know some Quirks can… um… Tsuyu-chan," he said in a tangent, "did you ever measure whether your weight increases when you extend your tongue all the way?"


"A lady shouldn't disclose her weight to young men, kero," Tsuyu chided, "but it doesn't increase."


"Huh? Oh, there goes that theory, then. But for growing-based Quirks, there's basically two methods through which it can work. Because supposedly, the extra mass for your flesh has to come from somewhere, right? I mean, a lot of Quirks violate traditional conservation of mass, like Yaoyorozu-san creating things, but she still needs lipids to start the process," Izuku reasoned. "I'm basically familiar with two methods. The first is just the generation of new cells and flesh, a biological method, while the second involves the expansion of the space between atoms and molecules despite still holding them together."


"What's the difference? And… Mountain Lady is a Musutafu hero, which one does she use?" Ochako asked.


"It's not what I'd expect, because I still have no idea where the mass comes from, but Mountain Lady seems to use the biological method. If she used the quantum method, expanding the space between her molecules like inflating a balloon, then she'd still weigh the same and she wouldn't break buildings when she moved wrong, because her weight wouldn't do that much damage," Izuku elaborated. "This also means that she can potentially heal injuries by switching between her forms, to an extent."


"You said she's creating extra mass, extra flesh, so I'm guessing the extra would just fill in the wound or something when she switches?" Hitoshi reasoned slowly.


"Probably, but I've never seen it work. Kendo-san, she just started fighting with Kamakiri and her hand got cut," Izuku pointed out. "If the cut's still there after she changes size… Especially if it stays proportional to her hand after changing size, that means her Quirk is quantum-method, but if it heals up or if it doesn't change at all, it's the biology method… probably. From what I saw of Tsuyu-chan's Quirk, I though her tongue was biology-method, because quantum expansion shouldn't give it that dexterity, but if her weight doesn't change then I don't know."


Izuku shrugged and hit PLAY again.


Itsuka fought Togaru, getting scratched up but not seriously injured, though she continued to seem unaccompanied as she fought.


"Any second now. Come on, you're in view of the bomb, any second now," Tohru pleaded, hoping Shihai would display a Quirk like hers.


On-screen, something Itsuka said made Tetsutetsu roar and run in, only for Itsuka to grab his hardened body in her big hands and use him to bludgeon Togaru.


"Ouch, that's gotta hurt!"


"I bet they're glad to be made of metal, kero."


All of a sudden, as Togaru grew new blades to fight with, Itsuka threw Tetsutetsu across the room, straight into the bomb.


"Ooh! I see him!" Tohru cried just in time for All Might to declare a hero victory.


Izuku paused it, backed up, and zoomed in.


"Is that a warp portal, like in USJ?" Ochako wondered a touch sickly.


"They'd have won earlier than that, kero," Tsuyu countered.


"Shadows," Izuku declared firmly. He rewound and zoomed in again. "Look closely: from when she entered, Kendo-san's shadow has been darker than the shadows next to her despite the lighting."


"He hid in her shadow, switched to Tetsutetsu's shadow when they overlapped, and then Kendo threw Tetsutetsu so Shihai could pop out and claim the win," Hitoshi summarized.


"Kero. I bet there's more to it, unless Kuroiro got in based on rescue points as well. I expect he has some trick to fight."


"Technically, there are shadows inside the robots' metal shells," Izuku reasoned. "He could probably slip inside… I don't know how well he'd fight, but Tokoyami-kun and Dark Shadow got 9th place in broad daylight, so I think it could work."


They took a few more notes, tossed around some comments, and then Izuku moved to the next video.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

"Be that as it may," Hound Dog said soberly, "as a Pro Hero and your teacher, Vlad King would risk himself for you, but he wouldn't want you to do the same."


"I know," Izuku allowed, looking up to the ceiling instead of at his Guidance Counselor, "but I don't regret it. …Do you know if he'll be okay?"


"His arm won't be returning to him, but Ectoplasm still works as a hero with prosthetics legs," Hound Dog reassured the boy. "Sekijiro won't quit easily. I expect he'll be back after the Sports festival."


"Do you know where- Can we visit him? Yaoyorozu-san and I put together a bit of a gift basket… Is it a bad thing that I let her make or buy most of it?"


"Attempting to forbid her from helping in her own way could be as bad as forcing her to act, but if she volunteered then there shouldn't be any harm in it. Often, people—especially young heroes—respond to distress by attempting to help others as a way of reaffirming their own capability."


"Really?" Izuku paused in thought. "That… actually, that makes a lot of sense. I think I do it." 'I mean, I need to prove that I'm worthy after being trusted with One For All, but even before All Might… Well, there weren't many times I could help people, but I wanted to.'


"Many students behave that way, and adults, not just Pro Heroes," Hound Dog chuckled. He let the silence sit between them for a few breaths. "…Where is your mind going?"


"I'm wondering-!" Izuku cut off, unwilling to reveal the secret of One For All, no matter how private these sessions were supposed to be. "Um, I've had some nightmares about everything, being attacked." 'It's pathetic, but Hound Dog-sensei won't judge me for it.' "Sort of as a way to… to convince myself it wasn't so bad, I've been looking into other heroism 'horror stories' where things went wrong. And then that got me to conundrums, especially because Nejire-senpai shared a 'logical ruse' with me from when she was a first-year student, and do you know about the Midwife's Conundrum?"


"A midwife attending a difficult childbirth has to decide whether to save the baby's life or the mother's," Hound Dog recognized.


"Yeah. There was… so heroes are supposed to save everyone," Izuku rambled, "but I'm… I only really noticed recently, but even All Might has had people die. Right in his debut, 3 people were dead before he arrived, and if he can't do it… But, that doesn't mean I shouldn't try. It's like approaching a limit when you calculate a function; we might never reach 100% saving people, but getting closer and closer is good, if each fraction of a percent is another life saved."


"Yes, very good. That's a mature realization from someone your age; we may not save everyone, but we should still try," Hound Dog congratulated.


"And, hey, limits are there to be overcome," Izuku finished, "so we'll Go Beyond."


"Plus Ultra!" Hound Dog barked.


They both laughed and let the quiet settle in again.


Hound Dog didn't prompt Izuku, he just let the boy think.


"…Hound Dog-sensei, about the Midwife's Conundrum. What do you answer?"


"I think I'm only qualified to give first aid and I shouldn't ever be in charge of a difficult pregnancy. But," Hound Dog continued before Izuku could interpret it as a rebuke, "I'd also say that broad hypothetical questions are often much more conditional and I'd need to make a judgment call in the moment based on what I knew of the mother, her health…"


"But you would try to save them both?" Izuku pressed.


"I would want to save them both," Hound Dog clarified. "If we assume I have sufficient medical training to tell that I would need to trade one for another, then we should assume I would be able to attempt a plan that might save them both. What do you think?"


"I want to save them both as well," Izuku said, "but the… I ran across this argument in an online forum about heroes and crises. One post criticized that trying to save both was irresponsible if you could guarantee saving one at the cost of another, because trying to save both allowed for the possibility of failing to save both, 'sacrificing the one life you would have saved in order to feel good about trying'."


"And what do you think?"


"I don't… disagree, but I do? It feels… incomplete," Izuku decided on. "I just can't figure out why."


"Hmm… There are a few articles and essays I can recommend to you; the school library has Japanese translations of a number of essays the Pro Hero Investment authored on the topic, including the Midwife's Conundrum."


"Investment?" Izuku perked up. "She's the #1 hero in Brazil, right? Ranked 4th worldwide."


"I believe she dropped to 8th after stepping back a bit from the limelight recently," Hound Dog mused, "but yes. She and Principal Nedzu get along well, and heroic morality is a topic on which she's something of an authority."


"What does she say about this?" Izuku wondered. 'I don't think I could ever ask... I guess I might ask All Might, but I just imagine him being disappointed that I can't find a better way. Id' rather him not blame me before I even make that mistake. ...I really hope I never do.'


"As I recall… 'Children less than a year old are ten times more likely to die than at any period between their first birthday and adulthood. Saving the baby will at worst create an orphan who may perish anyway of other causes in the next few months, and at best will force the infant's care upon caretakers also grieving the mother's death, whereas saving the mother will inflict grief on the parents but will also provide them the opportunity to birth or foster other children in future.'"


"That… Yeah. I guess that's a good answer," Izuku said, staring at his hands. He didn't sound convinced.


"No, it isn't."


"Huh? But-,"


"Investment herself then goes on to say that using her reasoning to make the decision is just an excuse to avoid feeling guilty about giving up on whichever life you didn't save. The 'correct' answer, she posits, is for the decision-maker to not be solely responsible, having had the training and education to know if the situation is as hopeless as it seems, and she cites several medical cases where a bad initial diagnosis had devastating effects. Her point being, if someone unqualified to make the call based on the unique situation is in charge of making that call, it means that the people genuinely responsible erred in allowing that to happen, and we shouldn't blame the person making the decision. It boils down to 'for heroes, an ounce of preparation is worth more than a pound of cure,' although it's more thorough in the original article…"


"I can read it, I won't trouble you," Izuku said quickly.


Hound Dog chuckled. "No trouble at all," he assured the boy, but he also took the cue to drop the subject. "Well then… is there anything else on your mind?"


"Um." Izuku bit his lip. "I've recently found out something, and she swore me to secrecy, but I just feel like I have to tell somebody and you might already know if she told you-,"


"Anything you tell me is confidential," Hound Dog promised him.


"Okay. Hagakure-san."


Hound Dog perked up his ears, knowing any of several things the boy could have learned. "What about her?"


"So… I sort of even feel dirty for noticing, but she's not actually, um… Like originally, we all thought she was naked in her hero costume to be invisible, because she can't do clothes? Only we were talking and I sortofwasnoticingherbrastrapthroughhershirtohgoshIfeellikeacreepnow-,"


"Brahahahaha…!" Hound dog cut Izuku off with a burst of laughter (louder than normal to dispel the tension). "That's hardly the end of the world, Midoriya-kun. Was she upset?"


"I mean… She… She swore me to secrecy, because she likes messing with people's heads. Um. I might not be telling this the right way…"


"Take your time," Hound Dog encouraged after eyeing the clock.


In bits and pieces, Izuku laid it out. His tutoring with Tohru leading to their interactions. Things he noticed or theorized. His question about whether her cut-off hair or nails regained invisibility. His reluctant practicing with her for sparring, because invisible limbs meant her hits were harder to block. His worry about her lack of armor. A loss of balance.


"She says she likes making fun of people and made me promise not to tell anybody, but I just- um." Izuku stopped talking.


Hound Dog waited patiently.


"It feels different, but then I feel guilty for thinking about her like that and it really shouldn't change anything? I just…" He finally looked at the Guidance Counselor. "She has to use her own cut-off hair to wear clothes with her quirk, and that seems really dangerous. Unfair, it seems really unfair. And heroes are people who overturn unfairness in the world," Izuku said. "I want to help her out."


Hound Dog smiled at him.

 

[Obloquy]

12 Days until the Sports Festival.


"WELCOME TO ANOTHER LESSON IN HEROICS 101!" All Might boomed. "AS YOU CAN SEE, TODAY WE WILL BE JOINED IN OUR EXERCISES BY ECTOPLASM-SENSEI, SO PLEASE GIVE HIM YOUR GRATITUDE!"


""Thank you for your time, sensei,"" most of the class chorused.


"It's always a pleasure," Ectoplasm chuckled. "All Might, an explanation of their task?"


"CERTAINLY! Boys and girls, today's exercise is: Protection Detail! You will be divided into 4 groups of 5 students each, and then further subdivided into a pair and a trio! Each pair will represent a team of villains, sent to eliminate a criminal informant under guard by 3 heroes! Ectoplasm-sensei has generously agreed to play the informant through use of his doppelgängers.


"There will be a 5-minute preparatory period for each team to strategize, and then 10 minutes for the engagement! The Hero Team must protect the informant for the duration of the time-limit, which represents getting them to testify. Should Ectoplasm-sensei's clone disperse, the witness—also known as the informant—will be considered killed!


"HOWEVER! While death is a grim event to be avoid at all costs, the death of the informant is not the end of the case," All Might announced. "The Hero Team can still win, albeit with lower points, if they secure both villains before the time-limit expires, while securing one will force a draw! The Villain Team must eliminate the hostage and escape in order to secure victory! Is this clear?"


""Yes sir!""


"Are there any questions?"


"All Might-sensei!" Momo put her hand in the air. "With Jirou and Iida still absent for medical reasons-," She sneezed abruptly, though her cold had mostly passed. "-the teams will be uneven! Please excuse me."


"CORRECT! An astute observation, Yaoyorozu-shoujo! I will not be announcing the team compositions in advance," All Might declared, "so we will see as we proceed. Once the first three exercises are complete, I will allow two members of losing teams from the early exercises to regain points for today's grade by volunteering to fight a second match! Other questions? Midoriya-shounen!"


"Sensei, is the person the heroes are protecting a civilian who is testifying to a crime they witnessed, or is it a criminal informant who might try to save their hide by re-defecting?" Izuku asked.


"AN EXCELLENT QUESTION! Today, the witness has come forth after seeing their neighbor engage in criminal behavior, unaware of the neighbor's membership in a wider-ranging crime ring that wishes to silence them. In future situations, however, you may be protecting a shady figure indeed! Now, let us begin!"


Producing a ballot box from nowhere, (there was a running bet among students as to where they were stored and how the staff got them each time,) All Might held it aloft and dove his hand in.


"Our first group of combatants… Heroes Tohru Hagakure, Minoru Mineta, and Momo Yaoyorozu! VERSUS… Villain duo Katsuki Bakugou and Izuku Midoriya!"


Izuku froze as Katsuki's baleful sneer fell upon him.


'Oh, this is not going to end well.'


"TEAMS, FOLLOW ME TO TAKE YOUR PLACES!"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

<THE 5-MINUTE PREPARATORY PERIOD BEGINS NOW!>


'This is bad this is bad this is bad. Maybe?' Izuku took another look at Katsuki, who only scowled up at the building. 'His mood isn't good, but he isn't glaring at me… We're a team, I need to talk to him. We got along okay at USJ. I helped him, I proved I was useful.'


"K-Kacchan," Izuku began.


"Hrmph," he grunted, refusing to look at Izuku.


Izuku leaned in further, trying to get his attention without daring to touch him. 'I need to do this! I can do this!' "Kacchan, we're outnumbered, and Yaoyorozu-san is the top student in the class." 'Wait crud I just implied someone is better than him, that's bad!' "I-I-I mean-! She's really smart with good grades and a recommendation student-,"


"And you think she's better than me!"


"I don't! Really, I promise," Izuku babbled as Katsuki turned on him. "Kacchan, I-!"


"Stop calling me that!"


Izuku gaped at him, open-mouthed. "Sssssorry," he mumbled. 'I guess I… was that important to him? Tsuyu-chan told me to use her name, and Ochako-chan… I just want him to recognize me…' A memory occurred to Izuku, of TV heroes Flamberge and Incisor deciding to start over after a disagreement at the end of season 2 had ruined their friendship. It tasted like ashes in his mouth to say, but… "B-B-Bakugou-kun. Bakugou-san," Izuku quickly amended when the blond turned to him. "We need a plan."


"Hrrr…" Katsuki rumbled, glaring at Izuku, who in turn backed off a step but didn't back down. "You want a plan, Deku?" Part of Izuku actually relaxed at the familiarity of the term. "Here's our plan: you stay out of my way, and I beat them up."


'He totally doesn't get it!' "Kacch-! Bakugou-san, these aren't strangers you can surprise and blitz! Yaoyorozu-san knows how we fight, and I've been tutoring Hagakure-san in-,"


"Then I really have nothing to worry about, if she's so shitty she needs your help," Katsuki snarled. "Ponytail can't touch me in a fight, and Grape Face is a step up from slobbering at the girls on his team. They'll either stay with the hostage or split up to patrol the area, and I'll blow them up when I find them." He grabbed Izuku's outfit abruptly, dragging Izuku in nose-to-nose like when he was really pissed about things (beyond being pissed at Izuku personally,) and added, "If you so much as get in my sights mid-fight, Deku, I'll blow you up too! I don't need your help to win this!"


Izuku tried to keep his face from flushing as he panicked for 3 different reasons.


"B-B-But Yaoyorozu-,"


"I'll blow her up too if she tries to fight me! Cannons can't aim for shit," Katsuki spat, "and her staff technique is pathetic! See Through Girl isn't wearing any armor, and Grape Face is even more pathetic than you are! You're nothing, and you may as well be on their team for all I need you! There's no Asui to jump around, no fucking flames… Just let me fight, and I'll win this!"


He finished off by shoving Izuku away hard enough the boy almost fell on his back.


"I… okay, K-… Okay, Bakugou-san," Izuku mumbled.


"Tch. Finally, he gets it. Just remember, if you do anything, I'll beat you senseless," Katsuki finished.


The rest of the waiting period passed in silence as Izuku fought the urge to cry.


'I thought things were getting better,' was all he could think.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

<VILLAIN TEAM, YOU ARE CLEAR TO ENTER THE BUILDING!>


"Finally," Katsuki grumbled, jumping straight up and firing off his explosions for propulsion. Yes, he was copying Izuku's & Tsuyu's strategy, but just to find the targets and even morons could have okay ideas. "Where are you losers hiding?"


He eyed the building as he rose and fell. Movement caught his eye.


'Wait, really? Yeesh, Ponytail must be off her game; maybe that Grape Face was slavering all over her.' Katsuki had seen a glimpse of Tohru Hagakure's gloves floating around through the second floor window, their movements making it clear she was patrolling. 'No way to fake that without a telekinesis Quirk. I guess they thought "unexpected" meant it was a good idea? Losers.'


Katsuki landed beside Izuku, now having the perfect idea for what to do.


"Deku, you wanted to help out? I saw See Through patrolling the second floor, go ambush her so I don't get jumped from behind. Grape Face is guarding Ectoplasm on the fourth floor, and I bet Ponytail is trapping other parts of the building, so I'll go win this and you keep them off my tail."


"I-! Okay," Izuku relented, "I'm just worried there's more to it than-,"


Katsuki shoved him (but not nearly hard enough to knock him over, since he was in a good mood).


"And that's why I'm the best," Katsuki scoffed. "The Number One Hero can't get worried about anything. Now go eliminate See Through before she tries anything clever, and if I see you anywhere near my fight I'll assume you're defecting from disobeying me." He shoved Izuku again, this time prodding him toward the building, and Izuku rushed off uncertainly.


Katsuki chuckled to himself as he rocketed with a thwoom into the air again. 'Moron didn't even go in through the 2nd story. I literally just said Ponytail should be off booby-trapping the building, and you don't assume she'd start at the bottom? Here's hoping he sets something off.'


Katsuki found a good window, and-


"Surprise, losers!" Katsuki shouted as he smashed through the window in a spray of glass, palms ready to explode the room.


Minoru Mineta immediately dove behind Ectoplasm's chair for protection while pelting Katsuki with a few easily dodged sticky-spheres.


But the boy didn't scream or say a thing. Even as he aimed his hands to pop the clone, that was the first sign Katsuki had of something going wrong.


Then Ectoplasm exploded, and Katsuki wasn't responsible.


Some foam spilled through the room, splashing over Katsuki even though he tried to blow it away with explosions; something unseen had impacted his hands and knocked his palms away from the spray before he could blast it.


'A trap! These losers thought this-!'


"Doink!" Tohru Hagakure actually yelled that literal sound effect as she somehow smooshed a purple pop-ball onto Katsuki's face without sticking herself to it.


'Oh, they're all dead for this!' Spattered with pink foam and a pop-ball on the bridge of his nose, Katsuki aimed his palms at Tohru as her footprints danced away through the foam.


He tensed and squeezed to trigger his explosions, but his hands barely popped.


"This stuff is-!" Katsuki stared at his palms in shock when they released what were closer to farts than firecrackers, let alone the explosions he'd intended.


"Momo-chan mixed it up for us!" Tohru teased, dodging around the chair with Ectoplasm's dummy to get out of sight again.


"Fine, but I can still get you!" Katsuki roared, charging her with his bare (but sticky) hands.


"Mmp!" Enough of the foam had got on Tohru to outline her in a few places, and he pinned her wrists, knocking an empty drink pouch aside as they struggled.


Tohru spat the drink in his face without warning, and it burned like crazy.


Fighting back a whimper, Katsuki let Tohru kick him off of her just so he could tend to his eyes, lashing out with his feet to keep her away. 'Can't use my hands on my eyes, I'll smear that goop in, but my forearms should be-,'


"Pennsylvania SMASH!" Izuku shouted, though Katsuki couldn't see him. The air-pressure palm thrust blasted Tohru into a wall, and Izuku took a moment to apply the capture tape-


<TOHRU HAGAKURE HAS BEEN ELIMINATED!>


-before moving to clean up Katsuki.


"Kacchan, downstairs, the gloves were attached to some see-through device, it was a blind! I told you this was a-,"


Izuku had tried to clean up Katsuki as he spoke, and he'd unwisely moved to wiping off the blond's hands once Katsuki's face was half-clean (the pop-ball made cleaning a difficult proposition).


"Oh, you told me so?!" Katsuki raged, grabbing Izuku and dragging him in as shame turned to hot fury in his-


*squeak!*


Izuku and Katsuki froze.


The pop-ball still attached to Katsuki's forehead had pressed against Izuku, gluing their faces together.


Izuku promptly realized he was a dead man.


Katsuki saw red.


And wouldn't you know it? Izuku had cleaned off the blond's hands so conveniently.


"Deku-!!!"

 

[Obloquy]

All Might exploded into the room more forcefully than any of Katsuki's blasts, righteous anger fueling him (along with the tiniest bit of guilty panic).


"CEASE!" All Might roared, seizing Katsuki before he could further injure Izuku, who had been burned and battered enough to fall unconscious.


"All Mi-,"


"DO. NOT. MOVE," All Might commanded as he held Katsuki in place, carefully bending him over so Izuku's head could rest on the floor.


Katsuki obeyed without a bit of struggle.


Carefully, All Might wrapped his thumb and the first 2 fingers of his free hand around the pop-ball that glued them together.


He squeezed.


He'd never yet turned coal into diamonds, but his strength was more than sufficient to pressure-cook, carbonize, and disintegrate the pop-ball with a moment's effort.


Dust fell away as he released his grip, and a moment later he had whisked Izuku off to Recovery Girl.


After enduring her scolding (he felt he deserved it for not stepping in sooner, or not laying out more ground rules,) and receiving a guesstimate for when Izuku would wake up and could return to class, he returned to the training ground.


Katsuki still stood there, ashen, surrounded by the three members of the Hero Team and Ectoplasm's clone (the man himself having promised to keep control of the rest of the class in his absence).


"The exercise is annulled due to behavior outside the boundaries of the exercise," All Might declared severely, and even the 3 on the hero team quailed. "Hero Team victory. Return to your classmates." He turned his eyes on Katsuki, still scowling in restrained fury at the boy who had assaulted Izuku. "I will join you after remonstrating with Bakugou."


Katsuki shuddered, and the 3 followed Ectoplasm's clone out of the building, subdued after everything. All Might loomed, scowling down at his student, and for the first time since the Slime Villain Incident, Katsuki didn't feel strong or confident. He didn't feel protected or safe.


He felt like he was alone with a man who had never been defeated, and who was very, very angry.


"I-I-,"


"Bakugou-shounen," All Might interrupted severely, "your behavior was entirely out of line. You are aware of this, yes?"


Katsuki nodded wildly at the rhetorical question, utterly intimidated by the sight of All Might scowling in displeasure, a sight rarely seen on TV, let alone in person.


"You've claimed you want to be a hero. That you wish to surpass me. In and of itself, that is an admirable ambition, but your actions here were shameful." Katsuki flinched. "This was not the behavior of a young hero, not even considering your villainous assignment in the exercise."


"I just… Deku…"


"I understand the two of you are rivals, but I have never known him to behave violently toward you. Instead, he speaks well of you," All Might lectured, "and while I understand your frustration with his growth, a hero does not become strong by cutting down his allies. Do you believe I would ever behave in such a way?"


"That-! You never need to, you're so strong you don't need friends or allies or hangers-on who just leech off-,"


"WRONG!" Katsuki cringed under the force of All Might's shout. In a more measured voice, All Might the greatest hero in the world, continued, "That, Katsuki Bakugou, is utter bull. I have had allies, and many friends. Do you believe I would ever behave in such a way as to dismiss Sir Nighteye? On more than one occasion, his perceptions and strategies saved my life," All Might revealed. "I would have died if not for his support." 'Especially against All For One.'


"You… but you're the strongest," Katsuki seemed to almost complain. Then he quailed at the hero's expression.


All Might laid a heavy hand on Katsuki's shoulder. 'This… is this a consequence of becoming The Symbol of Peace? This attitude that a hero must stand alone, without friends? What a lonely way of thinking.'


"No hero is strong when so utterly alone, Bakugou-shounen," he revealed. "I have many friends and allies, and I fight side-by-side with others quite often. Midoriya-shounen may be a great ally, as you two push each other to heights surpassing my achievements… or not. Make no mistake, Bakugou-shounen, your teammate's only error here was that he wished to win with you rather than in spite of you. Your combat abilities would be sufficient to claim victory despite the adverse circumstances you were subjected to, had you kept your temper. The match was very much yours to win or lose, and you chose to lose it. Beyond disappointing me, I hope that you are disappointed in yourself, and will reflect on this. Now," he finished, "come with me, it is time to return to class."


He clapped the shaken Katsuki on the shoulder one more time and led the boy away to rejoin the others.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

"The MVP for this match?" All Might prompted after he had explained Izuku's condition to everyone else (and that Recovery Girl would send him back before the end of the period).


The rest of the class gathered around him for the discussion, while Katsuki stood off to the side, staring at his feet.


"Judging from what we saw, Hagakure accomplished the most when engaging the villains," Shouto Todoroki volunteered, "but the strategy she applied seems to have been provided by Yaoyorozu. Without knowing what they said during the preparatory period, it's impossible to tell."


"All Might," Ectoplasm called from his position beside Katsuki, "before the next match, I'll show you how to increase the microphones' sensitivity in the observation systems."


"EXCELLENT! My sincere gratitude, Ectoplasm-sensei," All Might declared. "Todoroki-shounen, your observation is not wrong either. Hero Team! Would you care to divulge your strategy?"


The 3 huddled together briefly before straightening again.


Tohru stepped up first, having re-donned her boots and gloves.


"Hi guys! So, we really couldn't have pulled this off last week, because a huge part of it comes from my practice session with Midoriya and Yaoyorozu-chan's session with Mineta just this past weekend, but it's great!" Katsuki twitched at that revelation, glancing up again before dropping his face in despair. "My big breakthroughs were confirming that anything I store in my mouth is invisible, plus my hair staying invisible after I cut it.


"I mean, I technically knew both of those facts already, but I never really worked out all the implications. So my first suggestion was I pluck a few of my own hairs, attached them to Mineta's pop-balls, and use them as flails to bop the boys unexpectedly!"


Momo stepped up. "While working with Mineta, I did a chemical breakdown on his pop-balls and formulated a prototype substance that will let someone handled them without being sticky. Rather than have Hagakure-chan pluck her hair, I provided a sample in a container for her to wet her fingers with."


"I provided the pop-balls," Minoru volunteered. "I also thought up using distractions so we'd look like we were in different places than we were!"


"I created a copy of Ectoplasm-sensei's outfit to fit a dummy filled with chemicals to neutralize Bakugou's nitroglycerin," Momo continued, "as well as a dummy Mineta and a device made of a transparent alloy so Hagakure-chan would appear to be patrolling while guarding the dummy. Meanwhile, Mineta was guarding the the witness-clone in a room with out windows and I was nearby, trapping the building as we readied ourselves for the attack."


Everyone applauded politely as the 3 took a bow, and then All Might moved on to the next match.


"BUT FIRST! A REVIEW OF HOW YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BEHAVE AND TREAT EACH OTHER," he declared.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

All Might stared at Izuku and Katsuki. "You're certain of this?" He tried not to sound skeptical, he respected his student's resolve, but... 'Well, there are stranger ways to settle things between them.'


Izuku nodded firmly, though his face held some unease, while Katsuki wordlessly looked away despite having let Izuku pull him over to All Might by the wrist.


All Might sighed.


"Very well then! OUR FOURTH AND FINAL MATCH WILL BE THE HERO TEAM YUGA AOYAMA, EIJIRO KIRISHIMA, AND FUMIKAGE TOKOYAMI DEFENDING A WITNESS FROM THE PREDATIONS OF OUR VILLAINOUS DUO, IZUKU MIDORIYA AND KATSUKI BAKUGOU!"


"Who are you calling a villain?" Katsuki grumbled under his breath, but he followed Izuku out to take their places without issue.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

'…Why did I think this was a good idea? Right, Kacchan actually apologized to me when I came back and he just looks really… really bad. And if I let it simmer he'll probably make the loss my fault again after seething for a day or two so we need a clean win and I get the chance to impress him so he won't hold a bigger grudge than usual and make things worse. I can get through, I just need to get through this. I'm the Deku who can do it, so I'll do it!'


Izuku took a deep breath.


"I know our last match didn't really go well…"


"It's my fault," Katsuki repeated flatly, once again shocking Izuku. "Sorry about… yeah." He still didn't look straight at his teammate as he spoke.


Izuku took another deep breath. 'I think he means it. He really… UA is really different, isn't it. I'm not in trouble for antagonizing him, and he's apologizing.' "I-It's okay, Kacch- Um, Bakugou-san."


Katsuki twitched, but didn't comment on the name, which was a step up from telling Izuku to 'Stop calling me that!'


"All Might made pretty clear it wasn't. Ectoplasm-sensei said if I'd done that in real life they'd strip my hero license. It was stupid not to listen, you always…!" Katsuki cut himself off.


'I have no idea what to say,' Izuku realized.


"Look," the blond grumbled, "I didn't listen to your plan last time and it was shit, so speak up and give me something here. Clock's ticking." Izuku sighed in relief as they got onto slightly less strange ground again. "I'm assuming you want me to fight Bird Face and his siamese baby-brother with my explosions, maybe maneuver Glitter Brains into good position?" He vaguely remembered something about Glitter Brains's quirk being good to hurt the shadow thingy, but like heck Katsuki was usually bothered to pay attention to the extras.


"A-A-Actually, I don't think fighting them is our best option," Izuku said. 'Oh wait shoot I'm totally going to sound like a cowardly Deku now!'


Katsuki grit his teeth.


"Then what. Do you. Suggest. We do?" He forced himself to keep his temper as he spoke. 'All Might,' the blond reflected mentally, 'if Nighteye ever said anything this stupid, I bet you-,'


"Level the building," Izuku blurted.


He clapped his hands over his mouth anxiously.


Katsuki stared as though Izuku had just offered him a position at Might Agency.


"…The what?"


"We're- We're villains right now," Izuku emphasized once the danger zone seemed to have passed. "We're not supposed to care as much about collateral damage or civilian casualties, we just want our t-target dead. They can fortify the building, but we both have incredibly destructive Quirks capable of breaking walls and support beams. Ectoplasm's clones are more fragile than his real body, so just the shock of the collapse could 'kill' him if you blow up the foundation, and I can finger-flick some rubble at him for headshots otherwise while they're recovering…!"


Katsuki laughed, and Izuku trailed off in shock.


The blond was letting loose some weird mix of gleeful cackles and deep belly-laughs, a sound Izuku hadn't heard from him ever. Then, to top it all off, Katsuki looped one elbow around Izuku's neck to drag him in closer as he laughed-


'Ohmygosh he's so close our faces are practically touch him we might end up kissing if I lean in to far he's as good as hugging me right now this day cannot be real but what if it is I thought I was over this by now don't look at his lips don't look at his face he will not appreciate me doing anything right now and it would really not end well for us this is not something that's happening especially not now I just need to get past it again-!'


-and Izuku promptly began panicking in bisexual.


"Geez, Deku," Katsuki wheezed as he got himself under control, blissfully unaware of Izuku's emotional crisis beyond the blood rushing to Izuku's cheeks, "where exactly was this side of you back at Aldera! You might've actually been somebody halfway cool even without your Quirk."


The words were lies in Katsuki's mind, and he knew it, but they were intended as 'polite white lies' like his dad used sometimes, a gesture to reconcile with good intent.


He didn't know quite why they sucked the blood from Izuku's cheeks, nor did he care, but he let Izuku stiffly extricate himself from the hold without fighting it.


"I don't know," Izuku answered back bitterly, "it's not like everyone always told me I was pathetic and better off dead than in class with them."


Katsuki flinched a little, because he already said something like it a year ago when his mom dragged their family over to Aunt Inko's for dinner less than a week after the slime villain had attacked, but, "I said I was… ugh, was, y'know, sorry over the-,"


"Look," Izuku interjected sharply, "I already told you we could just forget about telling me to jump off a roof. It's fine." It wasn't but Izuku didn't want more fighting over it. "I was guessing Aunt Mitsuki had a bad night beforehand already, since you were way angrier than… is she still in AA again?"


"She stopped, but she's been sober, like, 4 months, no calling me any shit," Katsuki muttered. He still didn't know what had set his mother to drink that particular night, but he'd been seething the next day over how she said he'd never amount to anything with his piss attitude unless it was-


Well, that anger had come out in his lashing out at Deku, as happened sometimes, but then All Might saved them both from the slime villain and everything was a wreck for like the next week.


At least he'd made sure to leave Izuku alone after Izuku started going off somewhere after school, so Katsuki had figured that it all evened out.


But Izuku apparently had something else to say.


"Kacchan," Izuku reiterated, and Katsuki didn't tell him to stop it with that name, "do you really think you were the first person to tell me to kill myself?"


Katsuki stared at him cock-eyed.


"Bullshit," he dismissed uncomfortably, "you were literally the only guy to ever get flowers on your desk from secret admirers, I even saw Water Blob Girl put them there once before you arrived, and that was back when you were Quirkless. If you didn't take them up on their offers to hang when they liked you, that's all your fault."


Izuku laughed.


Much like before, it was a sound Katsuki had never heard from him, only this sound reeked of pain, years-old agony that had scabbed over but never went away completely.


Izuku laughed like he was despairing and barely even amused at himself for having had hope, and it just sounded so wrong that the blond shivered.


"Kacchan," Izuku sighed once it was out of his system, "you know, this is why we're still friends. Look up 'red spider lilies' some time, and why you don't give them to friends or people you like."


Katsuki had nothing to say to that, too off-balance from what sounded almost like pity in Izuku's voice.


In other circumstances, he'd have been pissed the nerd was so openly looking down on him, but right now…


<VILLAIN TEAM, YOU ARE CLEAR TO ENTER THE BUILDING!>


Both boys tensed at the announcement and put the talk behind them.


Right now, they had other things to worry about.


"Deku, you said you want to snipe by flicking gravel. Do you actually know how to do that?" Katsuki asked.


"I… I'm practicing, but I think it's our best ranged option-,"


"Nah." Katsuki cut him off, but the blond was smiling in anticipation. "We switch. You get the building, and I… I'll get to show off what these babies-," He hefted his one gauntlet, as the other had been lost in the Conflagration Zone. "-can really do. Smash the building, can you do that?"


Izuku blinked and smiled. "I told you, I'm the Deku who can do it," he declared proudly.


Katsuki ignored the fist-bump offer, but he nodded agreeably before he jerked his chin to get Izuku going.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

<VILLAIN TEAM, YOU ARE CLEAR TO ENTER THE BUILDING!>


"Okay, that's our go," Eijiro Kirishima declared. "Aoyama, you good to head out?"


"I'll make enough noise to let you know beautifully when I find them," the blond promised.


That was their tentative starting strategy: Fumikage would remain in a windowless room with the clone they were protecting, so he could hit the lights and let Dark Shadow go wild if need be; Eijiro would stay in the room to protect the clone if they were attacks, or he could quickly rush out to reinforce Yuga in the external area if need be.


Which is what led to the sparkling Yuga Aoyama spying Izuku outside the window and confronting him.


"A-ha! Go no farther, villain!" Yuga commanded as he vaulted out the 1st floor window to confronted the freckled boy. "Heroes are here to stop you! Abandonne-moi now, Midoriya-kun, or face justice in a jail cell! Tada~!"


Finishing his gallant introduction, Yuga (still keeping an eye open for Katsuki,) posed to fire his Naval Laser.


<This is Kiri,> his radio earpiece said. <We heard you're facing off with Midoriya. Good luck. No sign of Bakugou yet here.>


Izuku had been holding his right arm in a knife-hand shape, and while he hadn't tried to run away, he also didn't look ready to fight or charge the building.


"Oh! Aoyama-kun," he greeted with a nod. Then he said, "Um, you might want to dodge." He swung his hand back.


"Haha! Naval LASER!" Yuga blasted his Quirk down the alleyway, but Izuku ducked.


"North Carolina SMASH!"


He swung.


Even having been in the same testing site as Izuku, even having seen him smash the 0-point robot from a block away, Yuga had never been anywhere nearby when the boy used his Quirk.


'It's like the world shakes beneath his strength! Mon Dieu, the air itself is-!'


Izuku's knife hand struck the building, aimed nowhere near Yuga himself, and the shockwave of impact still threw him off his feet.


"Sacre bleu, Mido…ri…" Yuga's eyes widened as he saw the gash torn through one side of the building, corner to corner, entire chunks just blown away by the force Izuku.


"Get somewhere safe!" Izuku shouted back at Yuga, already running up the street as the architecture groaned ominously.


Yuga's radio sounded in his ear, but he was a little too busy scrambling for cover to hear them over his own shrieks of terror.


"It's no use, I'm not getting anything clear," Eijiro informed his teammate and their ward as the building shuddered.


"They've done something, we need to get out of here," Ectoplasm's clone argued, because no realistic witness would stay put in a collapsing building.


"Right sir, just follow m-!" Eijiro had run for the door, but something had given way and the room tilted.


"Dark Shadow, defend us!" Fumikage ordered as he hit the lights.


"I'm on it!" Dark Shadow howled, wrapping around them and shoving at the ceiling as it fell.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

When the collapsing was finished, Yuga had clean forgot about the match, wanting only to get his teammates out.


<Dude, stop panicking, I promise we're okay,> Eijiro assured him over the radio as Yuga dug through the rubble. <We even still have our witness! Dark Shadow just needs a second to-!>


The sound of collapsing in reverse hit Yuga's ears as Dark Shadow shoved away the pieces of masonry that had fallen, bring Fumikage, Eijiro, and Ectoplasm's clone into the daylight again.


"Excellently done, Dark Shadow," Fumikage compliment.


"Aw yeah, I'm the man!" Dark Shadow squawked.


"You are so the MVP here, and super manly!" Eijiro agreed as he rose into visibility and helped Ectoplasm's clone to better footing. "Alright, so now we-,"


From all the way across the street, an explosion rang through the air, and a lance of fiery heat bloomed, piercing clean through the head of Ectoplasm's clone.


"Sucks to suck, losers!" Katsuki called as soon as he saw the clone dissolve, and then he rocketed off, propelled through the air by his palm's explosions, discarding his now spent gauntlet as excess weight.


Izuku had hidden somewhere even before the building finished falling, and with Katsuki easily a block away before the Hero Team could finish pulling themselves from the rubble, there was really only one conclusion.


<VILLAIN TEAM VICTORY!> All Might declared a few minutes later, as the time limit ran out.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

Back with the class, Mezo Shoji turned to Tohru and Rikido.


"It's not just me, is it? Midoriya and Bakugou are legitimately terrifying when they collaborate, and we should never go against them when they get like this?"


"Totally," Tohru agreed soberly, with multiple other classmates muttering their agreement.


The sound of that building crashing down would echo in a few of their dreams, that night.


(Later that evening, after giving his parents an edited explanation—"I got in a fight when I shouldn't have."—about why he had detention after school and on weekends for a while, Katsuki Bakugou went to look up Red Spider Lilies. What he discovered would reframe a number of his interactions with Izuku in Junior High, and he'd spend a while staring at an empty toilet bowl, wondering if he was a bad person for not vomiting after what he'd found out.)

 

[Obloquy]

11 days until the Sports Festival.


"No, seriously, I don't get it," Katsuki grumbled. "Who the fuck is so screwed up in the head that they'll spend money to make someone feel like shit? Buying flowers that mean someone should kill themself, the fuck? My old man buys flowers for the Hag on special occasions and she goes gooey over them, it just…" Katsuki trailed off, scowling.


"Hate, spite, and jealousy are powerful motivators, but they are very rarely rational," Hound Dog advised him, before switching back to another part of the subject that had caught his attention. "You've called her Water Blob Girl, but you don't remember her name?"


"Why bother?" Katsuki scoffed. "She's not gonna be anybody; being in my class at Aldera is probably the biggest history book reference she'll ever get. If she isn't going to bother to stand out, I won't bother doing the work to remember her."


Hound Dog mulled this over for a bit.


"So it's less an inability to remember her name than an unwillingness. I was worried."


"Worried? About something other than this chick's hate crimes," Katsuki challenged.


"Memorization is an important skill for heroes to have, and doubly so for a student. If you couldn't remember the names of people you shared a classroom with for 30 hours a week over 3 years, how would you expect to remember or recognize the members of a villain gang, or the victims at the scene of a crime?"


"Pheh. Teach, have you seen me in action? I don't need to remember the small fry, they can't hope to stop me. Just look at our class practices."


"Like the exercise that got you sentenced to after school and weekend detention until the Sports Festival?" Hound Dog chided.


"…Tch." Katsuki turned to resolutely stare out the window.


Hound Dog waited him out, content to let the clock tick down.


"Hey, Kan-sensei said you were a friend of his, right? How's he doing?" Katsuki asked.


"He's woken up and is going through preparatory surgery for a prosthetic. I'll relay you and your classmates' good wishes to him when I visit."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

10 days until the Sports Festival.


"Thanks for making time for me, Nejire-chan," Izuku managed. With enough exposure, (and several other girls allowing him first name privileges,) he was mostly over his stutter with her, which always made her smile when she compared his coming out of his shell with Tamaki's progress over the years.


"Not a problem! Mirio's off at a karaoke birthday celebration for his work-study co-worker," Nejire explained, "so Tamaki and I are prepping on our own today. Hiya, Yaoyorozu-sensei!"


The Metal Hero: Kinzokubutsu gave her a stern look that faded into a nod of acknowledgement as Nejire led Izuku into the 3rd-year support studio.


"Hado," he greeted, "and this is the underclassman you mentioned?"


"I-It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Izuku said with a low bow.


"Yes. Speak up if you need anything," the man stated, and thankfully he turned away rather than bring up anything else.


"Wow, I think he likes you," Nejire cheered as she dragged Izuku over to some computers the size of filing cabinets. "Usually Yaoyorozu-sensei's even grumpier than Aizawa-sensei! He didn't even tell you not to break anything- This is it!" Nejire declared proudly. "So what we're going to do, we're going to hook you into these things—no worries, there aren't actually hooks involved, it won't be like that time when Tamaki went fishing with his sister and got her lip on the backswing, screaming 'I feel like a fish, I feel like a fish' as she ran around with the worm squirming—but yeah, we're going to hook you in and run some experiments to see your bones and what you look like with all your Quirk's energy stuffed in, that stuff."


"R-right!" Izuku yelped. 'I really hope I don't break anything.'

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

9 days until the Sports Festival.


The dawn hours of a Saturday were usually bane to teenagers, but Izuku threw on shorts and a t-shirt (reading "t-shirt" of course,) to meet All Might at Takoba Beach without complaint.


He'd always looked up to All Might, but the news that Katsuki was serving detention for his behavior in the Battle Trial… Izuku hadn't known that before, hadn't even thought to wonder whether someone would punish the blond for acting out, which was why he'd tried to handle it himself.


So far, UA was the best thing that'd ever happened to him in so many ways.


(And if all he could do to repay his hero was be the best successor he could be, then he would do it. Plus Ultra all the way!)


"Midoriya-shounen! You've made progress with One For All and you wish to show me," All Might (skinny form) prompted.


"Yes! Yesterday, Nejire-senpai did some tests on UA equipment to see how much stress my body was under with a few different versions of calling on One For All and mixing the power around. We figured… I mean, you've obviously never had your heart explode or shattered your ribs with using One For All on your diaphragm, so I never thought of it, but Nejire-senpai said it was a risk except it isn't now-,"


"BWAhahahahaha~!" Toshinori laughed, possibly spewing a little blood into a handkerchief. "Quite the active imagination she has… though I can see why she's one of the Big Three alongside Togata-shounen. But I assume this was the reason you only worked on strengthening your limb prior to now?"


"I hadn't entirely thought of it, but yeah," Izuku agreed. "I'll still injure my body if I use too much—and that'd be really bad if it reaches my spinal cord of internal organs—but we figure smearing a forearm's worth around my body should be safe-,"


"Because the forearm averages just under 2% of the body's total mass, while one's entire arm is on average closer to 6%, yes," the older man agreed. "I'd even go so far as to say you could safely attempt it with both forearms, but to be safe I would wait before trying one arm in its entirety."


Izuku's eyes widened. "You already knew-? And off the top of your head… All Might, is this a method you used to regulate your power when you-?"


"NOT AT ALL!" All Might laughed. "I was largely able to use One For All near-immediately, though I lacked skill and creativity in doing so. But then again, I held the power for several decades before I passed it to you, so I used it longer and more heavily than many before me had. My advice to you was not metaphorical the day of the entry practical: clenching my butt cheeks to brace for impact during a fight as I focused on my desire to smash the expectations of my teacher at the time was how I first really used One For All. In that sense," he reminisced, "you already were more successful than me, as my attempt earned me only a momentary reprieve before… before…" All Might trailed off, shuddering as he recalled the harsh sparring that had ended with him bruised, puking his guts out on Gran Torino's boots.


"I see," Izuku mumbled, mostly missing the expression of fear that passed over All Might's face. "In hindsight, I assumed you were hinting at me to use my muscles, and channel One For All through them for enhancement, since the Gluteus Maximus is the largest muscle in the body-," All Might perked up his attention at that observation. "-but if you never had my problems, and One For All has been cultivated since you received it…"


Toshinori let Izuku ramble for another two minutes, catching things he hadn't considered, or had dismissed previously. Most of them weren't of much consequence, he felt, but Izuku's observation on One For All generating a veiny image and crackling electricity was something he couldn't dispute or explain.


It was when Izuku wondered if it reflected All Might's original Quirk that he finally cut in by puffing up to his muscular form.


"Ahahahaha~! While I admire your enthusiasm, my boy, we haven't come here for talking! Not now at least," All Might corrected, ruffling Izuku's hair. "Tell you what, try it with 4% and show me what you're capable of. When we're finished…" All Might gazed into the distance for a moment, lost in memory. "When we're finished, I'll tell you more about One For All… and how my master decided that I-," 'A young Quirkless boy, as you'll no doubt be excited to learn.' "-was worthy to inherit it from her."


"Thank you!" Izuku cheered. "So you think I can handle 4% of your full power now? I wasn't certain yet, but I'll try it! I'll show you," he declared, "One For All: Full Cowling!"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

'Impressive,' All Might had to admit once Izuku was done demonstrating. 'He's not to the level I… well, I suppose that was inappropriate. But what he has accomplished, barely two months after he broke 3 limbs in the entrance exam practical, is astounding.'


Izuku's display of 4% Full Cowling had first lit up his body with jagged, zigzag marking that glowed like faint neon. Even before doing anything, All Might had seen the sand rustle outward from Izuku, as his protege exhaled, and could all but taste the crackle of energy and power in the air.


'Compared to the pressure David and Mirai described to me, or what I've felt fighting villains, it isn't much… but that a 15-year-old student can bring to bear pressure with this power is…' He'd had to laugh as he congratulated Izuku for accomplishing such an advancement.


Then the demonstrations had begun.


Izuku had leaped almost 3 stories into the air and landed without injury, then jumped 2 stories from his landing point to return to Toshinori's side.


He'd sprinted up and down the beach faster than- Well, it wasn't faster than All Might could perceived, but the average civilian would only see a blur outlined by green sparks at best.


Direct contact from his fists had cratered the rock face of small cliffs near the sea, and air pressure at least struck like a thrown tennis ball from 3 meters away, even if that seemed like nothing next to the cannonball blasts of 100% finger flicks.


Izuku took a few tumbles in showing off as well, of course, but he also pulled off a somersault landing once, claiming it was taught to him by his invisible classmate when they'd reviewed her exercise regime.


All Might made a mental note to come up with an exercise or two where the students needed mobility, such as chasing down an escaping criminal, as that had not been covered as of yet.


Then, when they'd covered everything for the time being (physically, at least), All Might sat Izuku down by the waves as a few early beachgoers trickled in.


"Now, I promised you the story of One For All, didn't I? This power… it's been handed down through many generations. You are the ninth bearer, carrying it into the future," Toshinori revealed. "I was the eighth. But there was a first bearer of One For All with whom it originated, and it is with him… with that man and his brother… that our story should start."


Izuku was not quite silent while Toshinori spoke, but he was quiet, and the notebook he brought was left unused on the sand between them. The boy instead seemed swept away as All Might relays the tale, listening with awe.


Two brothers were born and raised in the early days after Quirks first appeared. One with a power, and one without, as they saw society begin to shatter around them.


The elder had a Quirk, which he named himself after in his dark dealings: All For One, carrying the ability to steal Quirks from other people and add them to his own power, while also redistributing these powers at will to reward loyal subordinates.


All For One gathered the frightened and the frustrated to him. He took Quirks from those who opposed him, but also from those who were cursed and disparaged for their 'deformities,' earning loyalty by providing normalcy back to those in need.


The problem, however, was the price of loyalty he demanded from them, and what he would do to those insufficiently grateful. Bodies would regularly be found, twisted in horrendous ways by superhuman powers, and these displays also exacerbated fears and tensions between those with and without Quirks.


All For One, however, was not alone. He had a younger brother, Quirkless, whose birth name history has forgotten. Beyond lacking a superpower, this younger brother lacked even the regular power of Quirkless humans, being frail and sickly.


"I daresay," Toshinori chuckled, "he was as bad off as you were when we first met, if not worse. And he would have been a man grown at the time!"


"Really?" Izuku wondered.


"Undoubtedly. But," Toshinori continued, "much like you, he had strength in his convictions, and his willingness to put everything on the line for what he believed was right. I suppose he must have been a lot like you, indeed."


Izuku beamed, and All Might continued the story.


He spoke of the younger brother resisting All For One in whatever way he could, until finally—out of an impatient desire for punishment, or a desire to win his brother over, or maybe another motivation entirely—All For One forced a quirk onto his brother.


This itself, All Might explained, was a risky act: people who received quirks unsuitable for their bodies supposedly had been reduced to unresponsive states, like living dolls.


All Might wondered silently whether it was worth mentioning the Noumu, but he decided to continue with the story for the moment instead.


The Quirk All For One had chosen, however, was supposedly believed to be so weak that even the feeble younger brother could handle it: a Quirk that gradually stockpiled power, allowing the user to grow stronger at a slow rate and become acclimated to the strength as they went.


"Stockpiling power…" Izuku stared at his own hand, recognizing the reference.


"Precisely," Toshinori agreed. "Unknown to either man, however, the younger brother possessed a Quirk as well. A weak, 'useless' Quirk that could not take from others… but it could accept what was given to it and it could give back unto others as well. A Quirk that could be passed from person to person, combining with the stockpiling Quirk in the younger brother: this is the true origin of One For All!"


"Amazing!" Izuku cried out at All Might's declaration.


"Yes!" Then he deflated slightly. "Or at least, so it seems."


"Huh?"


"The actual events occurred… More than a century ago, at least. It may be closer to two, now," the blond reasoned tiredly. "While I've done my own research… I've found only bits and pieces to add to what my predecessor told me when I inherited her torch. Indeed, I've learned as much from All For One's disparaging comments about my use of his brother's power as I have from anything else!" He tried to force a laugh, but it came out hollow.


"Wait." Izuku gasped. "Was All For One the villain who injured you?"


"He was," Toshinori agreed. "It isn't difficult to imagine him stealing an anti-aging Quirk. I know nothing of the second or third bearers of One For All, but they must have existed and taken up the cause when the younger brother was no longer able to. So it went down the years, then… and when it came to me, I was finally able to defeat him! Or so I believed," he sighed.


"Then… he's still alive?" Izuku sounded worried.


'Good. Not terror, but with this man, fear is the rational response,' Toshinori reflected.


"I don't know," he answered aloud. "The possibility remains that he is involved with the League of Villains, or that he took on successors of his own. Student villains, if you would. Still! For the time being, that is something we adults should worry about, young man. You just focus your efforts on the Sports Festival, declaring 'I am here' to the world."


"I-I will! I won't let you down," Izuku swore fervently.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

That night, alone in his room, Izuku's mind was racing.


He'd been so emotional before, he hadn't asked many questions, but now…


Now he knew about One For All's origins, and also tidbits All Might had revealed about his own mentor, Shimura Nana. The man had undergone a change of mood when he tried to speak of her, and Izuku quickly switched the subject away from something so painful to All Might, but he had remembered learning that her quirk was called Float, and she'd been a relatively unknown Pro Hero who nonetheless saved many people.


He hadn't mentioned much about her use of One For All, but he'd mentioned that she'd seen something in him, even though he was Quirkless.


All Might had been Quirkless.


'Which means,' Izuku concluded, 'anything different between our uses of One For All isn't due to him having a Quirk the way she had Float. So something else might be going on. He even said he doesn't have all the information.'


Izuku picked up his notebook. In his mind, the words of Vlad King—a compliment that analysis was a good habit for a Pro Hero—played on repeat as Izuku stared at a blank page in his notebook.


Finally, Izuku put his pencil to the paper and wrote 3 words in English: One For All.


He let them sit there, as though weighing them.


Finally, the damn broke, and he began scribbling down all that he could think of, every use in the news, every disparity between him and All Might.


Izuku filled up 3 pages before he went to sleep that night, and he had more to do in the morning.

 

[Obloquy]

8 days until the Sports Festival.


"Kan-sensei," Momo greeted as they entered the hospital room, "we come bearing gifts!"


"Everyone's hoping you'll recover," Izuku seconded. "I mean…" He trailed off, considering that there was no recovery from a missing arm. "We miss you," he settled on instead.


Kan cleared his throat awkwardly, seeing the size and contents of the gift basket Momo was carrying.


"Ah. Yes, I see. Well, you shouldn't have, but I'm glad to hear you're all doing… as well as can be expected. Ryou has been keeping me up-to-date, as has Miss Whisper," he hedged as the students took seats by his bedside.


"We're all working our hardest to do you proud in the Sports Festival, sensei," Momo promised.


"Right!" Izuku agreed. "Iida-kun won't be recovered in time, but they don't foresee any problems with his surgery- oh!" The freckled boy quickly drew out a card, one separate from the girt basket. "This is from him, and he says that if you…" Izuku fidgeted at relaying such a blunt message, and soldiered on resolutely. "He says that if you blame yourself for his injury, I'm supposed to 'remonstrate with him appropriately for dealing with a hospital patient,' and then remind you that it's the villains' fault for attacking us."


"Oh!" Momo chirped as she remembered something. "That's right, Kan-sensei. 'The mark of a bad personality is in the refusal to accept responsibility, while good people refuse to let go of it.'" She smiled proudly. "As the wounded parties, I believe we can agree to hold the villains responsible for endangering us."


"Yaoyorozu," he deadpanned, unamused, "if you insist on throwing my words back at me again, you'll find that I am still able to assign you detention."


She pouted. Izuku produced his phone with a grin.


"But Kan-sensei, then you won't get to see these adorable selfies we took with Mert-kun before we came to visit you," he pleaded, pulling up an image of Momo laughing while Kan's dog licked her face.


Sekijiro Kan tried to remain grim-faced, but both students could see the internal struggle he was thrust into.


"…Your attempt at bribery is acceptable. Give me the phone and I'll text them to myself, please. And tell me what preparatory training you're doing for the Sports Festival," he added as he took the device.


Momo and Izuku spent the next few minutes listing off everything they were doing, how everyone was recovering—"Kyoka-chan should be back in school this week, she said." "You can't even tell that Ojiro-kun was out sick, and he's been a big help with sparring."—and what school had been like for everyone.


"This afternoon, we're going to the beach," Momo finished proudly. "Not everyone, but several of us are taking the time to relax."


"Kirishima-run said he read about an old training technique samurai used, practicing against the surf, so he's really excited to try it out with us," Izuku added.


"Is this Takoba Beach?" Kan asked perceptively. Izuku squirmed but nodded. "I expect you'll be interested in seeing if it's stayed clean, then."


"Is there some story here?" Momo asked, glancing between them.


Kan smiled, and took ruthless advantage of the opportunity for revenge on the brat that had held hostage photos of Mert. By the time he'd finished relaying the story to Momo and advising her where to search online for articles about the beach's changed condition, Izuku was bright red and incoherent at the praise heaped on him.


___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Mina Ashido grinned. "Never have I ever… hauled around a refrigerator," she declared.


"You guys…" Izuku groaned, folding down his last finger as he was removed from the game. He glumly dropped his hands to the sand he was sitting on.


"Hey man, don't be like that." Eijiro clapped him on the shoulder while smiling. "It's super manly what you did, and impressive as all get out. Oh! Someone totally needs to visit Iida and tell this story so he can make a powerpoint lecture about Midori-bro's awesome achievement. Miss Class Rep?"


"Midoriya-kun volunteered to deliver Iida-kun's homework tomorrow, but I'm sure Ochako-chan will be happy to talk up my adjutant."


"Absolutely! I knew Deku-kun was amazing, but this was even before all the stuff in the entry exam when you got your Quirk, right?" Ochako punched the air excitedly. Izuku blushed as she bounced enthusiastically, trying to find somewhere safe to look.


He settled on the sky.


"Um, hey, wasn't it Ochako-chan's turn now?" Izuku suggested since he was eliminated. "How about I make a snack run for everyone." 'I'm not used to seeing that much skin, so I need to chill out a little bit.'


"That would be so awesome, Deku-kun!" Ochako cheered. "Get some mocha chips and a drink and I'll pay you back."


"I suppose one of us will have to do it without Jeeves-san present to provide refreshments," Momo mused, digging into her purse. Everyone else who caught it sweat dropped that her butler usually came with her to the beach for these things. "Don't worry about repaying things, it's on me for the day, as it's my responsibility to provide for my classmates." She passed Izuku a roll of bills.


"Momo-chan, you're the greatest!" Ochako declared, tackle-hugging the taller girl.


"Three cheers for Yaomomo!" Mina agreed.


"Ooh, that's perfect," Denki cackled as he grabbed his phone. "Keep hugging, I'm sending this to Jirou."


Izuku quickly ran for snacks before the cute girls reduced him to stuttering again.


___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


7 days until the Sports Festival. Lunch.


"Brainwashing that works when the other person responds to your voice? Is it just your voice, or words, and could it be their voice or specific words as well? But that's really powerful, there's so much you could do with that Quirk," Izuku complimented as his pen flew across the notebook page.


"You really think so?" Hitoshi asked carefully. He couldn't believe that one of the (apparently) stronger Heroics students was complimenting him, he could barely believe that anyone agreed about his Quirk being good for hero work, and he didn't quite dare to hope that Izuku would keep talking to him once it set in.


"Yeah. I mean, if it needs to be activated by a response, I can definitely see why you insisted on having this conversation with no one around," Izuku gestured to the far corner of the campus they'd perched in during their lunch break, "but you can de-escalate so many emergency situations before violence breaks out just by talking to people. Heck, you could… a bunch of the villains who invaded the USJ made a point to gloat, so you could have stopped any of them cold so easily. If a villain takes a hostage and you go in as a negotiator, it ends as soon as you ask what they want. Villains who cause a fuss or make a scene…"


Izuku trailed off and fought down a blush when he saw Hitoshi had started smiling softly at him. 'Crud, I thought I'd gotten over this already, I hate teenage hormones,' he groaned mentally.


"You really think so? Most people tell me I'd make a great villain, not a great hero," Hitoshi mused.


"I mean…" Izuku trailed off, thinking back to a talk with Hound Dog he'd had. "When most people say 'good for hero work,' what they mean is 'good for crimefighting'. But I was talking with a few people, and fighting is fighting, really. Any of the top ten heroes could probably be really dangerous villains, like Edgeshot breaking and entering or Endeavor committing mass arson. But your Quirk can be used to stop fighting, not just to hurt people or break things," Izuku reasoned, encouraged by Hitoshi's expression. "If I come up against a criminal I can't punch, I'm going to have problems. As long as you can talk to them, like they aren't some robot-," 'Or that brain-exposed guy at USJ.' "-but a person, then you can stop them without hurting people. Oh! Actually, maybe you could even stop entire groups of people if they all respond to you, does that work?"


"Not that way. I can control multiple people I've Brainwashed and keep them under, but it still requires attention and effort to put them under, so I can only take control of one person at a time," Hitoshi answered carefully, still wondering if Izuku would realize that he was talking with a guy who could brainwash him by talking.


"Is there a time-limit? Are there things they can and can't do? Do you have proprioceptive feedback regarding whether people are under your control or not?"


Izuku continued to mutter as much to himself as to Hitoshi while he wrote down a big list of questions, only half of which Hitoshi had ever really thought about or confirmed before.


Hitoshi gave answers as best he could: he didn't know if there was a time-limit to keeping people under control, as he'd never tried for more than 2 hours; he'd never found enough willing volunteers to test how many people he could keep under or control at a time; giving orders was verbal, he couldn't mentally control people; he'd never tried it across a language barrier; no one had broken out internally, but people had been jarred free from him by pain or impact; he couldn't give commands that required brain activity, like answering questions honestly or choosing something; he could give commands that required dexterity, like typing or tying shoelaces; etc.


Izuku finished up his list, nodded resolutely, and looked Hitoshi in the eye.


"I think I'll need to go under you Brainwashing's control to answer some of these," he said, unknowingly cementing himself in Hitoshi's This Person Is Trustworthy category. "It doesn't take much time?"


"No… Are you sure about this?" Hitoshi wondered.


"Yes," Izuku said, and Hitoshi triggered his Quirk.


___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


6 days until the Sports Festival.


"Accuracy contest: ready, set go!" Izuku shouted.


Immediately, Mina began hurling globs of acid and Yuga started firing off short bursts of his Naval Laser, both targeting the chunks of rubble Ochako had floated up in the air for them.


All Might had taken them to one of the cityscape training grounds and declared the day's event would be free training for the students in whatever they thought they needed to improve. Izuku suspected he'd used up too much time earlier that day, which was why they'd been given free time, but he wouldn't shame his mentor for saving people.


Some of the class (particularly Katsuki, Eijiro, and Mezo,) had set up sparring rotations, another group (led by Hanta, Tsuyu, and Rikido,) were improving mobility by treating the buildings as obstacle courses, and Izuku was overseeing Quirk practice like accuracy training as Momo moved around between areas as needed.


"Got it!" Mina shouted.


"Ooh, but you can't match my sparkle, mademoiselle rose."


"Release!" Ochako shouted, bringing her fingers together to start the second round of the contest.


Izuku just dodged through the debris, minding his footing, as Mina danced and skated over a layer of acid, but Yuga got a block of concrete (a small one) to the head.


"Oh!" Yuga toppled over and Izuku caught him before he fell. "Je vous remercie, my hero," Yuga purred as he looked into Izuku's eyes.


'Not this again,' Izuku mentally whined as his cheeks flushed. Then it got worse when Mina jumped on his back and wrapped her arms around him.


"Way to go, Midori!" Mina cheered, pressing her body into his and almost nuzzling his cheek. "I haven't seen you hit once and you grabbed Yuga-kun, way to go! You're really good at dodging, you know?"


"Y-Y-Yeah," Izuku stammered out. 'I feel like I can barely breathe, they're so close! Everyone's so…!' "Thanks?"


"You guys! You're crowding him," Ochako scolded, having picked up by now that Izuku wasn't comfortable with even most platonic PDAs. "Don't make me tell the class rep on you."


"Geez, Ochako-chan, jealous much?" Mina teased, but she hopped off Izuku's back and took Yuga to steady the blond as Ochako pouted.


Izuku breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Ochako-chan," he murmured. He shook himself. 'Okay, I have responsibilities now, it's back to business!' "Aoyama-kun, can you keep going, or should we make a trip to Recovery Girl?" 'She probably won't be happy to see me, but maybe bringing someone else… I haven't needed to visit for a few days, so I'm improving.'


"I can-!" Yuga began laughing at the idea, but then he winced. "Actually," he admitted, "I may need to see her after all. Would you walk with me?" He offered Izuku a look of glistening puppy-dog eyes the boy couldn't say no to.


"Sure!"


"Watch it…" Ochako grumbled quietly, doing an I'm Watching You gesture to Yuga before he got out of her sight. Yuga winced and made a pleading gesture at her in return, to which she nodded.


Izuku missed all of this, as he was looking for, "Yaoyorozu-san! Aoyama-kun took a hit to the head, so I'm taking him to Recovery Girl for a check-up."


"Understood. I'll make a note of it and step in to supervise if need be," Momo promised him, heading toward Ochako, Mina, and the few others hanging around as they waited for a turn.


Izuku led Yuga out of the training ground and toward the main building, supporting the boy as they went.


"Hmm… Do I make you uncomfortable, Midoriya-kun?" Yuga wondered.


"Huh?" 'Oh no! He thinks I'm acting weird, or that it's his fault instead of me…' "N-No! That's not it at all, Aoyama-kun! I promise. I just… Everyone's so friendly since I started UA-," 'Since I got One For All and wasn't Quirkless.' "-and I'm not really used to it."


Izuku let the conversation trail off there, but Yuga frowned, thinking.


He'd been planning to flirt a bit more with Izuku and see if he wanted to take a leap of faith, but now he was having doubts. Yuga had come out to Mina as gay when he turned down her invitation on a date in the second week, but that had been because he knew she had two fathers and wouldn't judge him.


Izuku he couldn't get a good read on, due to the boy's anxiety and awkwardness, but the idea of Izuku cringing or shying away from Yuga was unpleasant.


He opted to change the subject.


"You know, when we first met at the practical, I thought you weren't terribly impressive, I admit," Yuga acknowledged. "You promptly proved me wrong by destroying that giant robot, but…"


"Yeah, I surprised myself with that too," Izuku chuckled nervously.


"We… I think we're a little alike, Midoriya-kun."


"Huh? But, I mean… Aoyama-kun, you're so stylish and confident, and I don't really…?"


Yuga laughed. "Flamboyance is an acquired state of being, I'm afraid. But we both have powerful Quirks we can't control very well, and we're driven to overcome that. I must confess, your progress has left me feeling a tad insecure. Do you have any advice?"


Izuku blinked, his hands going for his notebook before he paused.


"I can't… really… think of anything that you aren't already doing, based on what I know, Aoyama-kun."


"Pity," Yuga sighed. "I'd ask Yaoyorozu-chan for advice, but I fear she may be overstretching herself in helping others already. And you are as well, perhaps, but… Out of idle curiosity, that Gen Ed student, why did you decide to help him?"


'Because I thought he was really brave standing up to us and telling us he wanted a clean fight so we'd know to look out for him come the Sports Festival, even if he admitted he was trying to get us riled up so we'd respond more easily for his Brainwashing,' Izuku absolutely did not say out loud.


He sighed.


"It's a couple of things. To start with, we were already making preparations for the Sports Festival, so a lot of what I did was just invite Shinso-kun to things we were doing anyway. My senpai said there shouldn't be a seat limit on hero class seats, and either way we have one spot free after that expulsion, but also… You remember me at the entry exam practical?"


"Oui, I just said as much. Hmm… As I remember, Bakugou also claimed you got 0 Villain Points, so I suppose that giant robot was the only one you destroyed? Actually, now that I think of it…"


"I was pretty much running around like Gomu-san at Akita," Izuku agreed.


"Although you failed to literally bounce off of any buildings that I could see."


"I guess, but…" Izuku trailed off as they reached the doors of UA, but some impulse prompted him to start talking after a moment. "Aoyama-kun, do you think someone can become a hero without a Quirk?"


It was a question Izuku had asked some dozen times, in one form or another, and to which he had uniformly received a negative answer.


Instead of laughing, Yuga hummed in thought.


"Are you asking about someone who can't use their Quirk, or-? Ah, non-non, you are referring to yourself as a 'late bloomer'. My apologies, it can take me some time to reach a point, merci," the blonde rambled. "Still… I believe it is in-theory possible," Yuga judged "but as with many things in life, I don't doubt the first few people to attempt it will fail in trying. But some Quirks are even detrimental to heroism, like ours can be, so I see little reason why we can't eventually have a Quirkless Pro Hero."


"Eventually," Izuku sighed heavily.


"Hmm?"


"That's the other thing I was thinking, I guess. There are a bunch of Quirkless kids out there who'd love to see a hero like them, the way I would've… I guess I just sort of thought that helping Shinso-kun…"


"It could be good practice for training a Quirkless hero, if you start with a hero student whose Quirk isn't suited for combat," Yuga reassured him politely.


"Yeah," Izuku sighed, dismissing the subject as they reached Recovery Girl's office.