Dragonspawn (My Hero Academia SI)

[Blackout]

"I am going to kill Ryuo."

"You can't kill him." I muttered drowsily to Ryuko, who was standing beside me looking for all the world like she was just about to put her words into actions. We were still in the medical ward, I was curled on the floor with my head resting on my tail, while she leaned against the wall. "You'd go to prison, and what would I do then?"

She sighed, and then smiled fondly at me. "You're right. I won't kill him. But we do need to do something about this. Have you talked to Mom and Dad yet?"

"No." I said with a yawn. Recovery Girl had ordered me to eat something to restore my energy, and after devouring a bucket of meat one of her robot assistants had brought up from the cafeteria I was fighting off sleep. "I should call them, shouldn't I?" I muttered, starting to rise to my feet.

"No, I'll do it. You stay right there and rest." Ryuko said, and I let her push me back down. "Don't worry about Ryuo, just focus on the tournament. He already interfered with one match, don't let him throw off your game for another."

"Still won."

"And I'm proud of you for that, 'Zaki." She smiled at me. "I was starting to think maybe you hadn't inherited the breath weapon after all."

"Guess there's a silver lining to my public humiliation, at least." I replied, sombre. "How do you… do it? Get that angry on demand?"

"...I think about you getting hurt." She admitted with a sad smile.

"That's, ummm…" I stumbled for words, feeling a lump in my throat.

"So, how are you feeling? Nervous?"

"...Tired."

"Then go to sleep, you doofus." She said, poking me in the snout.

"Can't. Need to fight."

"They announced an hour's break while they clean up. You have plenty of time for a nap."

"But-"

"I'll go call home and then talk to the teachers about Ryuo. I'll be back to wake you up before your next match, and if for whatever reason I can't make it Recovery Girl will. You'll be fine, trust me."

A part of me still felt a little dubious, but the leaden weight on my eyelids brooked no counterarguments. "'kay."

I was out cold before Ryuko had left the room.

-----

Awareness returned with a jolt, and I sprung to my feet like a startled cat. In my haste my tail knocked over a trolley behind me, which clattered to the floor loudly.

Once I realized I wasn't being murdered my heartbeat began to slow down, and I checked myself over. All limbs still attached, still a dragon. Right. Deep breaths.

A glance at the clock on the wall told me it hadn't been more than twenty minutes. What had woken me up?

Spreading my ears, I heard somebody just outside the room standing still, but their heartbeat and breathing betrayed them.

Lumbering over to the door I pulled it open, to reveal Tokoyami standing frozen with his fist held out. He must have been about to knock, before his footsteps woke me up.

Well. This was awkward.

Tokoyami blinked up at me, then reasserted his composure. "Greetings. I wished to speak with you, if you are available?"

"...Yeah." I said, shrugging off the last vestiges of sleep. "I need to talk to you as well. Come in." I moved aside to let him in, sitting back down so that we were at eye level.

"I wanted to apologize for what was said during our match." Tokoyami said, bowing deeply. "Dark Shadow?"

The shadowy creature extended from his chest, it's yellow eyes downcast as it repeated the bow. "We're sorry."

"I, uh, it's alright." I said, stumbling for words. This was not what I'd been expecting. "If anything, I should apologize to you. I shouldn't have gotten so angry. It wasn't… you I was really angry at." I swallowed. "Recovery Girl said you were burned, are you…?"

"I am fine now." The bird-headed boy said with a shake of his head, his Quirk retreating within him again. "She healed me. And regardless, we should not have said what we did. But thank you."

There was a moment of silence.

"So…" I began. "Dark Shadow grows stronger the darker it is, right?"

"Indeed." Tokoyami sighed. "He grows stronger in the absence of light, but also less controllable. Once that happens he feeds off of my negative emotions, to the point that he might disobey my orders."

"I see." Feeding off of his emotions… so Dark Shadow still acted on what Tokoyami felt, even if it was a twisted and amplified reflection… "...What would happen in complete darkness?"

"I do my best to ensure such a situation does not come to pass." Tokoyami said gravely.

That was… some pretty heavy stuff.

"So, we're good?"

"Of course." He nodded. "You won fairly. I suspect it would have come to pass even absent what happened. It was a humbling yet inspiring experience."

I squirmed in place, unsure how to respond. "...The trick with using Dark Shadow to pull you was really good."

"Thank you. I shall now take my leave, and allow you to prepare for the challenges ahead." He said, pushing himself off the wall and walking towards the door. "I hope we meet again. Farewell."

"See you." I mumbled, my weariness returning. I should still have at least another half an hour, so I curled my tail around myself and soon began drifting off again.

-----

I woke up again to the familiar sound of Ryuko's voice, murmuring something incomprehensible.

I blinked my eyes open to see Ryuko standing by me, smiling at me as soon as she saw I was awake. It was out little ritual, Ryuko's way to wake me up without startling me.

"Is it time yet?"

"The semifinals are starting. You're not up yet so you could continue the nap, but I thought you might want to see the other match."

"I do." I confirmed, pushing myself to my feet. "I feel fine now, and I wanted to talk to my classmates anyway. Who won the last quarterfinal, by the way?"

"Yoarashi. I didn't see it myself, but from what I heard he called down a lightning strike on Todoroki." Ryuko said with obvious glee. "Endeavour must be pissed."

"How did he do that?" I asked, bewildered.

"I don't know. I guess he must have felt the need to show off after you stole the thunder with that fire breath."

"That pun was actually terrible, please stop." I grumbled. "Did you talk to Mom and Dad? What did they say?"

"Dad told me to tell you he's proud. Mom was… well, you know how she gets about this stuff."

"...Yeah."

Very little was said after that, Ryuko departing for the VIP stands as I trudged back towards the competitors' area. With nothing to occupy my mind, my thoughts turned towards what had happened.

I had, well, there was no putting it mildly, I'd lost my temper in front of everyone. Nobody knew about Ryuo or the real reason I was angry. A cold chill ran through my spine. I was supposed to make my impression on the big stage today, and I'd given one of unprovoked rage.

So lost was I in my thoughts that I didn't hear the incoming footsteps or the loud arguing until the two 1-A students almost barrelled into me.

"Kacchan-"

"Don't call me that!" Bakugo yelled at Midoriya, who looked for all the world like a beaten dog. "And stop following me!"

"But-"

"But nothing." The ashen-blonde boy snarled. "Just leave me be. And when we get down there, you come at me with everything you've got, understood? I don't want some limp-wristed victory because you felt bad or something stupid like that."

With that he stormed off, leaving Midoriya looking forlornly at his wake. After a few more seconds he seemed to realize I was there, and with a blink he was smiling again, looking up at me. "Oh, hi Tatsuma!"

I noticed that the finger Midoriya had sacrificed against Kirishima had now been bandaged, probably having been healed by Recovery Girl. At the very least, he didn't seem to be in pain.

"Yeah. I'm alright. Tokoyami, too." I said, before looking past my shoulder where Bakugo disappeared behind a corner. "What was his problem?"

"Oh, don't mind Kacchan, he's just a little abrasive sometimes!" Even I could tell that Midoriya's smile was strained.

"That seems more than just 'a little abrasive' to me."

"..."

"Well." I said as Midoriya averted his gaze, looking down. "I won't keep you any longer, you need to get ready for your match. Good luck!"

"Thanks!" The green-haired boy replied, his expression a little more genuine. "You too!"

-----

I almost dreaded to step out the door and into the stands. What were the others going to do when they saw me? Would they think less of me, for having lost my temper? Almost certainly. And I'd almost burned Tokoyami. And then there was the crowd. Would I get booed?

I fidgeted nervously for a moment, before swallowing and pushing through. It'd be even more embarrassing to be caught here in front of the door, and I did want to see the match.

My eyes adapted to the harsh sunlight all but instantly as I made my way towards my sea, not looking at anyone. Just act natural, don't make a big deal out of it and others will be less likely to. That was one of the things that Kawaguchi had taught me.

"Hi Tatsuma!" Pony said as I sat down, curling my tail around my feet. "Are you feeling better now?"

I let out the breath I'd been holding. "Yeah. I talked to Tokoyami too, he's fine as well."

"You missed Yoarashi's match!" Pony said, bouncing up and down in her seat. "It was awesome! Todoroki was line "Grrrr!" and Yoarashi was like "I will smite theee!" and called down thunder from the sky and-"

"I merely exercised my passion." Yoarashi commented, though his demeanour seemed a little more subdued than usual.

"So…" I exhaled deeply. "Yui, be honest. How bad was it?"

The others seemed lost as to what I meant, but Yui shifted slightly, showing me her phone, several live commentaries running on it.

"Not as bad as you think. Your body language isn't exactly easy to read, so not a lot of people caught on to how angry you were. I think most people are guessing you were giving Tokoyami a fighting chance."

"Great…" I lowered my head to the floor, wishing it would open up and swallow me. Now everyone would think I was being arrogant.

"That reminds me, what was up with that?" Tetsutetsu asked from the next row over. "You seemed to be mad even before the match started."

I sighed miserably. "I'd rather just forget about it."

The gray-haired boy seemed unsatisfied, but a firm look from Kendo deterred further questions and soon enough Mic's voice boomed out once more.

"We've had a long and eventful day here at the UA First Years' Sports Festival, but I hope you're still with us because we've still got some real zingers for you guys! For the first match of the semifinals, we have Izuku Midoriya versus Katsuki Bakugo!"

The two contestants walked out into the arena, Bakugo glowering as per usual, while Midoriya almost seemed… sad, for some reason.

"Ready, set... go!"

"Die!" Bakugo blasted forward with a leer on his face, aiming straight for Midoriya. The other boy seemed morose, but there was a spark of determination in his eyes. As I watched, I saw him mouthing something, and strained my hearing to the utmost.

"I'm sorry."

Then, I saw his entire left arm light up with energy as he drew his fist back, before throwing a punch in Bakugo's direction.

Only, the word "punch" didn't seem to do it justice.

If the finger-flick had been akin to a bomb going off, I wasn't even quite sure how to describe what happened when he put his whole arm into it. The air pressure was immense, and I saw Shieldwall's forcefields forming around the arena only to shatter like glass. Loose items went flying, people were knocked over and left gasping for air.

And as the wind cleared, the entire stadium gasped as Bakugo was revealed, slumped against the far wall of the arena with an expression of utter shock on his face.

A shout of pain drew my eyes back to Midoriya, clutching his very obviously broken arm against his chest, bent at odd angles and the skin turning into an ugly colour of purple.

What the hell was that Quirk of his? I'd never seen anything like it.

But, teary-eyed and hurt though he may have been, he was unequivocally the only one left standing.

"Izuku Midoriya wins!" Midnight announced.

"Wow, that was fast! Midoriya didn't pull any punches, but I gotta say I was expecting something more than just blasting his opponent."

"He saw his best chance at winning and took it. It's only logical." The other commentator replied to Mic. "Bakugo has exceptional mobility and firepower, and if he let him close in, as it is, the match wouldn't have lasted long either. But using only a single finger wouldn't be enough at that range, when Bakugo could counteract the wind with his explosions, so he went for full power. He accepted that pain without hesitation, and it afforded him victory."

"Huh, so there is still tactics involved here!"

"Of course."

-----

"And now, for the second half of the semifinals, we've got the real deal for you guys! It's Ryuuzaki Tatsuma versus Inasa Yoarashi!"

I walked into the field once again, feeling the butterflies jittering in my stomach, but… it wasn't as bad, anymore. Ryuko was right, it did get easier.

"Alright! I knew you'd make it here!" Yoarashi hollered, pumping his fist. "Let's have a passionate match!"

"Yeah." I replied, his excitement infectious. "Let's go!"

"Begin!"

I buried my claws in the concrete just as the wind slammed into me head-on, howling against me with the force of a hurricane. But I anchored myself in place, an immovable object in the face of the storm, and Yoarashi could not budge me, not even an inch.

"Very good, Tatsuma! As expected, in a direct clash of strength I cannot overpower you!" Yoarashi yelled over the wind. "But can you move?! You cannot win by playing defence!"

"Watch me!"

I am not agile. Never have been, and likely never will be. But "not agile" is not the same thing as "slow". My acceleration or maneuverability may not be the best, but my particular kind of speed is like a boulder rolling down the hill. Once I get going, I am near-unstoppable.

I took a step forward, my claws sinking into the concrete.

"It takes more than mere wind to halt my advance."

Another step. Then a third. I began increasing my pace.

The power of his attack grew in strength as I got closer to Yoarashi, but I had momentum on my side now, and cut through the wind like a freight train in motion, drawing inexorably closer to Yoarashi. I could see the individual drops of sweat on his skin.

But for all that, he was faster still, and just as I swung at him he gracefully somersaulted over me, reversing the direction of the wind and blasting me in the direction I had been going, trying to push me towards the edge.

"You'll need to do better than that!"

I knew he wouldn't just stand there and let me hit him, so I'd been waiting for him to make his move. And when he did, I whipped my tail like a lash, clipping Yoarashi's side and sending him flying.

"It's a good plan, but predictable!" I told him as I skidded to a halt, my claws leaving deep imprints in the concrete. "Shishida and Tokoyami already tried to use my momentum against me! It's too obvious!"

To his credit Yoarashi recovered with astonishing speed, arresting his flight with a sharp crack of air pressure.

"Just wanted to make sure!" He replied with a grin even while he gasped for air. "Are you ready for me to get serious?"

"Bring it!"

I was already moving, my feet pounding on the concrete. This was… fun. It was hard to not get swept up in the enthusiasm of the fight, just push all of my worries away. Even Mic's commentary faded into the background. The only thing that mattered was my next move.

I spread my wings, trying to use them to give myself that extra bit of speed that I lacked, but Yoarashi was wise to it. He punished me with a gale wind that caught on to my wings and almost pushed me back before I folded them again, holding them tight against my body. That wasn't going to work.

Yoarashi's mobility was phenomenal, and his aerokinesis would immediately punish me if I tried to take flight myself. Thankfully, for all his speed and range, Yoarashi lacked raw power, at least in comparison. He'd need to get close if he wanted to have any chance of affecting me.

I continued my charge, and sure enough, instead of running Yoarashi begam to charge up some sort of attack, holding his hands slightly apart and compressing wind between them.

I saw it coming, but dodging would slow me down. Unacceptable. He would not hurt me. He could not.

"Spiraling Typhoon Slash!"

The concentrated beam of air hit me dead-on, slamming against my chest with surprising force that knocked the wind out of my lungs. But that was the worst of it, and after several seconds it dissipated, leaving only a shallow blemish on my scales. It might be able to shred my wing membranes, if this had been that kind of fight, but it could not move me.

But it did slow my charge enough that there were no prospects of catching Yoarashi as he rocketed off.

"Seems like your defenses are as impeccable as ever!" He said, coming to a halt on the other end of the arena. "It appears that we have reached a stalemate!"

"You cannot hurt me, I cannot catch you." I concurred, before glancing upwards. "I don't see any stormclouds- not going to call lightning down on me?"

"Ah! That technique is still experimental. I cannot maintain the cloud once it has been discharged, and I don't have a way of making a new one from scratch." Yoarashi admitted. "Aren't you going to breathe fire on me?"

"I'm not sure I could manage to." I replied candidly in kind, shaking my head. "And I wouldn't use an untested attack if I could help it."

"I see. We are at an impasse."

I was running low on options. I could try to tire him out and go for an endurance victory, but between the two of us, in a contest of stamina… based on what I knew of his capabilities over the last month or so, it was a coin flip at best. At best. And the point of the Sports Festival wasn't just beating your opponent.

I want you to make an impact so big that when I see the headlines on Tuesday they'll be talking about "Ryuuzaki Tatsuma". Not "Ryukyu's sister,'' you.

I needed an opening. Just one good, hit, and this match would be over.

I glanced towards the stands, and then back to Yoarashi. Accepting pain in order to achieve victory, huh?

...This was going to suck. But I needed an opening, and I couldn't think of anything else.

Without a word I accelerated into another charge, but Yoarashi was far too good at this to be taken off guard by the sudden movement, and I saw the instant change in his stance as he prepared to rocket away before I got within reach. But there was no blast of wind to meet me; he'd already come to the conclusion that he couldn't meaningfully shift me, and so conserved his energy for his own mobility, knowing I couldn't catch him.

But I had one last trick left to play.

I got as close as I could, and as I saw Yoarashi's legs tense to jump into the air I tucked my ears tight against my skull, drew a deep breath and then roared right at him with everything I had.

It wasn't an application of my Quirk that was immediately obvious but, well, I was a giant dragon. When I wanted to be, I could be really, really loud. Kendo occasionally used me as a loudspeaker when she needed to get a message out to the rest of the class.

Of course, there was a glaring, obvious drawback to this tactic. A lance of pain resonated through my head. It felt like my ears were on fire. My vision swam. Even with my ears folded to protect them, I'd wager that I felt a lot worse than Yoarashi did.

But I'd been prepared and braced for it. He hadn't.

For just a moment he stood there, stunned by the burst of noise, his concentration broken. His hands instinctively flinched upwards to his ears, rather than directing his Quirk to carry him away. It was all the opening I needed.

I could have let momentum alone carry me forward, but I could not risk crushing him. I refused to allow it. And so though I staggered, feeling nauseous and wanting to puke, I stayed on my feet and caught Yoarashi in a firm grip around his torso. Awkwardly holding him with one arm I slowly came to a halt, trying to hold back vomit.

I'm not actually hurt. It's only pain. It'll go away. It's just the ears. I'm not hurt.

Little by little, the world stopped spinning, and sound returned. There was a roar of noise from the stands, in the distance I could hear Mic's commentary, but the first sound that really struck me was… laughter.

Yoarashi hadn't even tried to struggle- he knew full well that in terms of physical might, I could overpower him with one taloned finger. Once I had him in my grip it was over. So instead, he'd thrown his head back with laughter.

"Taking advantage of your own weakness to catch me off guard, knowing that I'd never expect a sonic attack from you! What a passionate path towards victory!" Yoarashi gushed in his typical fashion. "I have been bested, and so I concede!"

Midnight swung her whip, and that was that.

"Ryuuzaki Tatsuma wins!"

I was in the finals.

Spoiler: A/N

Just one more Chapter to go in the Sports Festival.

 

[Blackout]

It almost felt weird, not taking the detour to Recovery Girl's office on the way back. Yoarashi and I chatted amicably as we walked, though in truth it was mostly him speaking.

"And then I was thinking, I should get a katana."

"...What would you do with a katana?" I asked, dipping my head to the side.

"I'll figure something out." He waved me off. "I love katanas!"

As we walked back towards the competitors areas, I began to hear an odd noise coming from somewhere. It was a series of sharp cracks and pops, almost like…

"What is it?" Yoarashi asked, looking at my twitching ears. "Are you hearing something?"

"Yeah." I swallowed, before nodding the direction it was coming from. "Explosions. Small. From the prep rooms."

A part of me wanted to call a teacher to deal with it, but I suspected I knew what it was. Taking a couple of strides over to the door I stepped into one of the rooms reserved for the competitors to prepare for the matches.

The room was just a simple space, with some lockers for storing items, a table and some chairs as well as a water fountain. And there, on the other end of the room was Bakugo, small explosions sparking out of his hands as he punched the wall, leaving scorch marks on the concrete.

Well.

On that regard I had no grounds to judge him.

Kirishima was standing by his side, the two of them seemingly having been engaged in an argument. As we entered, Bakugo whirled about, his expression furious. He really did not seem to have taken his loss well.

"What are you two NPCs doing here?!" He demanded.

"We heard explosions." Yoarashi noted, glaring at Bakugo.

"Also, this is the prep room." I added. "My match is next."

"Tch. So you won, then? You better not let Deku win." He growled at me. "He probably spun up some sob story to get a free ride through the Cavalry Battle with you two, didn't he?"

"No." I replied calmly. "He contributed valuable threat intelligence to the team. There were no free rides."

"Would you have accepted that bastard if you'd known about his Quirk, huh?" He shot back.

"No." I admitted. "But it was a risk I took when I accepted him into my team. And he did his part."

"Fine, if that's what you wanna believe. Don't come crying to me afterwards." Bakugo stuck his hands to his pockets and began walking for the exit.

"Fucking faker bastard, pitying me…" He muttered to himself as he slammed the door behind himself, probably not realizing I could still hear him.

"What is his issue with Midoriya?" I asked Kirishima. "I just don't get it."

"Look, he's not as bad as you think. He just hates feeling like he's being looked down upon." Kirishima sighed. "He… well, he thinks Midoriya was lying about his Quirk."

"What do you mean?" I asked, tilting my head. "That doesn't sound like Midoriya."

"Well, um." Kirishima suddenly looked uncomfortable, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm not really sure it's my story to tell, but since I opened my mouth already, um, from what I understand, he thought Midoriya was Quirkless."

"How is that possible?" Yoarashi asked.

"Well, I asked Midoriya about it, and he said he was just a late bloomer. He only figured it out a year or so ago. So now Bakugo's got it stuck in his head that he was just leading him along."

I leaned back, as the pieces of the puzzle finally clicked together. Midoriya had only discovered his Quirk recently. I'd read about it- it was rare, but it did happen, people who were thought to be Quirkless but just hadn't figured out how to trigger their Quirk. Why he couldn't seem to control his power. And, in a way, how he acted.

I thought back, to the very beginning. Not this life, but my previous one. Many of my memories had faded over the years, but one of the things I recalled vividly was longing for something beyond the ordinary. Distracting myself from the depressing reality with fantastical tales and stories, imagining myself in them.

How much worse must it have been for Midoriya growing up, when he lived in a world where his peers did have supernatural powers, where the prospect of becoming a superhero was real, just not for him?

It explained a great deal about him.

"Well, anyway, I should go. Bakugo's still my friend, so I'm gonna go look after him. Good luck in the finals, though I hope you won't mind if I root for Midoriya." Kirishima said with a smile.

"I suppose I can't fault you." I replied with a note of amusement. "Thank you."

"I should get going as well." Yoarashi said moments after Kirishima was gone. "I wanted to talk to the others, and you'll need to prepare for the Finals."

"Yeah. Tell them I said hi."

And then it was just me and my thoughts.

-----

"And now, the final showdown you've been waiting for all day! We've had some truly breathtaking competitors taking part in today's events, but only two of them could make it here to the end, the UA First Years' Sports Festival Final!"

This was finally it. The end, one way or another.

"On the left corner is our very own Kaiju, the unstoppable bulldozer who's rampaged her way through the tournament, it's Ryuuzaki Tatsuma! Versus! On the right, we have the surprise challenger who nobody saw coming, but has reaped his own tally of opponents with his incredible power! It's Izuku Midoriya!"

My opponent had his right arm in a bandage, held limply by his side- it didn't seem like Recovery Girl had healed it for him. It made sense- healing a finger was one thing, but an entire arm would probably eat up too much stamina for Midoriya to continue fighting. Which meant at most he could perform four finger-snaps and one punch.

I tried to think of something to say and came up blank, so I only nodded, receiving one in return. I focused only on him and the distance between us while I waited for the signal to begin. Everything else wasn't important.

"Start!"

My claws dug into the concrete as I marshalled all of my strength to hurl my body forward, accelerating myself into motion and rapidly closing the gap between us. Maybe I could catch Midoriya off guard.

No such luck.

"SMASH!"

I felt the air slam into me like a physical object, as strong as any wall. But I'd broken through walls before, and my horn cut through the wind with all the momentum of my four-ton body at a dead run behind it.

The air pressure was still immense, even stronger than what Yoarashi had thrown at me, and by the time the wind dissipated I'd been forced to a halt. It was an interesting experience- the only thing that had ever managed to outright stop my charge was Ryuko.

But Midoriya had paid for that, clutching his bruised and broken finger. He had three shots left, and a single big one.

He had proven he could stop me, but I'd also proven that a simple fingersnap wouldn't be enough to knock me out of the ring. Now the game was on.

Intel was critical here- I was pretty sure he hadn't seen most of my matches since he went before me, but in turn his fights hadn't exactly given up a wealth of information about his true capabilities either.

Could Midoriya take me out with a full-arm punch? Almost certainly- if he got a direct hit, that is. The air pressure would drop off considerably with distance, and even sacrificing his arm wouldn't guarantee victory past a certain range. But how much? Five meters? Ten meters? Twenty meters? And my momentum affected the equation as well.

Since he only had one arm to use, it was in Midoriya's best interest to try for a direct hit and not risk it. Similarly, I needed to find an opening to throw him out without being hit myself, or failing that bait out his attacks.

The former would be difficult, given my size, but basing my strategy around waiting for my opponent to break each of his bones in turn didn't quite sit well with me.

I sighed. It would just have to do.

I began slowly circling Midoriya, and he responded by mirroring my movement. On some level, it must have looked ridiculous, a giant dragon squaring off against a teenager with a broken arm, but I couldn't afford to let that distract me. That Quirk of his was no joke.

I needed a way to strike at him, without exposing myself to his attacks in turn.

I suddenly reared up on my hind legs, before coming down and headbutting the floor. Concrete shattered like clay, sending vibrations across the stadium. Using my claws I pried off a large, broken chunk of concrete, and with a slap of my tail sent it flying Midoriya's way.

I saw his eyes widen as it approached, hastily bringing up his arm, and-

"SMASH!"

The concrete practically disintegrated, bits and pieces landing here and there, a few bouncing off of a forcefield Shieldwall threw up. Two left.

By the time the dust cleared the next improvised projectile was already airborne. To his credit, Midoriya had realized immediately what I was doing and began running straight towards me, smashing the second concrete piece out of the air with another finger-flick. One left.

There was a strange sort of calm settling over me as he closed in. I batted the third piece at him with my tail, before he'd crossed even half of the distance. He broke it apart. Now, he was out of fingers to flick.

Even so, if the pain of deliberately breaking three extremities in a row affected him, he didn't let it slow him down. He kept on coming, a look of manic resolve on his face. He intended to finish this.

But so did I. While there were still several dozen meters between us I flexed my fingers to embed my talons into the concrete. Then, I spread my wings wide and began beating them as if to take off, but my claws kept me anchored to the floor.

The amount of propulsion needed to keep a dragon airborne was immense, and the airflow buffeted Midoriya, sending him stumbling back and almost tearing him off his feet. It wasn't as strong as his attacks, or as focused as Yoarashi's, but then again he wasn't nearly as hard to shift as a dragon.

I took a careful step forward, continuing to force Midoriya back towards the edge. This way I didn't have to get close to finish him off and I had my eyes constantly on his arms, watching for any sign of that energy flash so that i could fold my wings immediately.

I saw desperation in his eyes, as he ran through the same scenario as I did. With only a thumb left he couldn't snap his fingers, and a full-arm Smash at this distance was awfully risky for him.

Just as I begun to think I might have had him, Midoriya responded to by sticking his thumb in his mouth and flicking it against his cheek.

But it wasn't aimed at me- it went down, breaking apart the concrete floor and giving him something to hold on to. With his broken fingers.

As I watched on, astonished, he maintained his grip despite the absolute agony he must have been in, until I relented my attack. He fell onto one knee, tears of pain in his eyes.

"Why?" I asked with genuine puzzlement, stepping forward. "Why go this far? Why do this to yourself just to win?"

"It's because…" Midoriya spoke up, his voice shaking. "It's because I want to become a Hero. Because I will become a Hero. The greatest Hero there is."

When he said those words, I saw his eyes flicker to the side for just an instant, almost imperceptible, but I caught it. I craned my head to follow his line of sight to the VIP stands, and Midoriya visibly flinched.

"There's someone you look up to, isn't there?" I said as I connected the dots. "Someone whose approval means everything to you is watching."

"...Yes." Midoriya admitted, swallowing slowly. "Someone… who I hold in the very highest regard… told me to say- to announce my presence to the world today." He went on, his voice picking up strength. "And that's why I must aim for the top! So please! Come at me with everything you've got!"

I stood there, stunned.

So tomorrow, I want you to show the world who you are. I want you to make an impact so big that when I see the headlines on Tuesday they'll be talking about "Ryuuzaki Tatsuma". Not "Ryukyu's sister,'' you.

It was like looking at a mirror. I knew what he was feeling, that burning desire for approval, to prove yourself worthy of the expectations set upon you, because I felt the same. Would I have done anything different than Midoriya, if I was in a position where the only way to win was to hurt myself? No, I knew I wouldn't, because I did exactly that against Yoarashi.

I looked him in the eyes, and saw that he would not be budged from this. Not by me.

"I see." I dipped my head. "Alright. But when you figure out how to use that Quirk if yours properly… I want a rematch."

"Got it."

As long as he had a handhold he could resist my wing attack, but at this distance, he would be on me before I'd manage to get another projectile ready. Which meant that I'd have to bait his last attack out. And there was only one way I could accomplish that.

I had to get in close. It was risky, but from this position, it was the best that I had.

I shifted my weight forward, accelerating towards Midoriya just as he broke into a run towards me. Distantly, I could hear the crowd and Mic's voice, but it was like I was underwater. They simply didn't matter.

When there was maybe twenty meters between us Midoriya sprang forward, cocking back his arm, trembling with the effort of closing broken fingers into a fist. I felt everything slow down. This was it. The pivotal moment. Arcs of power ran along Midoriya's arm, as I dug in my claws, converting the momentum of my charge into a horizontal spin, bringing my tail to bear.

"SMASH!"

Then I slammed my tail onto the floor, smashing it apart much like Midoriya had, causing him to stumble and lose his footing just as he threw the punch. The wind hit me like a giant sledgehammer, but I'd managed to spoil Midoriya's aim, and the epicenter of the attack passed above my head.

Even so, as a testament to the absolutely ridiculous power of his Quirk, it sent me skidding backwards dozens of meters, but instead of the knock-out blow he had been aiming for I came to a halt well before reaching the edge.

A pained yell escaped Midoriya's lips as he stumbled back, droplets of blood dripping onto his bandaged hand as he held the freshly-broken one.

I was breathing heavily, but aside from that I remained unhurt, whereas both of Midoriya's arms were now broken. It was over. Anyone could see it.

And yet still he wouldn't concede. Our eyes met, and he shook his head ever so slightly. In his gaze, there was only absolute determination to win. I sighed, and shook my head. So be it.

I pushed forward into another lumbering charge, clawed feet pounding on the concrete. I'd just grab him and throw him out of the ring. Put a quick end to it.

Midoriya for his part looked defiant to the end, even though he had to know he stood no chance. He squared up against me as I approached, his arms hanging limply at his side-

Then, as ice ran along my spine, I saw his right leg light up with that familiar energy, ripping through the fabric of his gym uniform as he wound up a kick.

So it's not just his arms?

My heart was pounding in my chest as I processed what I was seeing, adrenaline pumping through my veins. This was not good. At this range, dodging was out of the question. My only chance was to meet him head on, and hope that it'd be enough. So I pushed myself forward all the harder, throwing everything I had into that charge even as the distance between Midoriya and I shrunk.

It was desperate, but maybe, just mayb-



…



…



...



-----

When I dreamed, it was of a life long since lost. A mess of memories drudged up by my subconsciousness that my awake mind had mostly forgotten.

And when awareness returned, it was with a jolt. I sprang to my feet, only for my limbs to buckle beneath me, and I crashed to the floor. I tried to rise again, slower this time, only to stumble and fall. I blinked my eyes, resolving into the by-now familiar image of the medical ward room.

I rolled onto my stomach, and everything hurt. It felt like I'd been hit by a train. My head was pounding. Every muscle I had and a few I didn't know I had were sore.

And there, on my chest…

The plate-like scales had been cracked an unimaginable force, leaving an indent on my chest that flared with pain every time I breathed in. My mouth felt dry, and there was an odd tingling sensation in my limbs. Though it hurt to move, I raised a hand to trace the edges of the wound with a claw.

The last time I'd been hurt like this had been… had been…

Not so invulnerable after all.

Time passed, though I couldn't tell how long it was, until finally Recovery Girl swept into the room, taking stock of the situation as she walked up to me.

"Oh, good, you're awake. How do you feel?"

"Hurts." I mumbled, feeling strangely short of breath.

"I don't have dragon anesthetic available, sorry to say." She shook her head. "Still, the damage was mostly superficial- you're in remarkably good condition for someone who was just launched through a concrete wall, you know- so I prioritized healing Midoriya first, as much as I dared."

She inspected the dent on my chest, before turning to look at me again. "I can heal you- it will drain some of your stamina, but you should be fine beyond feeling tired for a while."

"Thank you." I croaked.

She daintily kissed the side of my paw, and to my immediate relief the crushed scales began to reform, mending together until soon enough you almost couldn't tell there had been a wound there.

Almost.

I breathed a little easier, though like she said I felt a weariness setting in my muscles, like I'd just come back from running a marathon. Well, several marathons.

"All better now." Recovery Girl said, surveying her handiwork. "I should get back to Midoriya. That boy…"

"Is he- is he going to be alright?" I asked, coughing.

"He simply didn't have the stamina left for me to heal everything in one go. Nothing permanent." She shook her head, a distantly disappointed look on her face. "For now, at least. But that's not for you to worry about. You should be fully healed now, so unless there's anything else I should attend to Midoriya."

"Yeah." I breathed in, and then out. "I'm fine."

She gave me a look but said nothing, striding out of the room the way she came. I was alone again. Time passed.

Eventually there was a knock on the door, and Ryuko stepped in, smiling as she saw me.

"Shuzenji said she'd healed you up, but I wanted to see it with my own two eyes.

"Yeah." I said, shaking my head like a dog. It was fine. Everything was healed. "I'm fine."

"That's good to hear. Are you ready to go?"

"Go where?" I asked, puzzled.

"The award ceremony?" Ryuko replied.

"...But I lost the match?"

"You still won silver, doofus." Ryuko smiled fondly. "What, did you forget about that already?"

"...In my defense I've been told I hit my head on concrete recently."

"Psh, as if that could get through that thick skull of yours."

"..."

"Hey. It's alright." My sister said, instantly reading my mind. "That hit probably would have knocked me out- that kid is crazy strong." She shook her head. "There's no shame in that loss."

"You wouldn't have let him hit you in the first place." I muttered. "I didn't- It didn't occur to me he could enhance his kicks as well. He'd only done punches and fingersnaps but I should have realized- it was stupid."

Ryuko sighed, and then folded her arms firmly. "No."

"No?"

"No. I'm not allowing you to feel glum for "only" placing second in what they're already calling the craziest Sports Festival in the last three decades. You made a mistake- so what?" She looked me in the eye. "Think about everyone who was eliminated in the previous Stages, or earlier in the tournament. Don't you think it's a little unfair towards them to feel unhappy with your placement when so many people never even made it this far?"

"Alright, alright." I conceded with a sigh. Ryuko knew exactly what buttons to press. "I'm sorry. That was ungrateful of me. I just- I just-"

"It's fine." My sister said, affectionately bumping her forehead to my shoulder.

-----

I couldn't really fit on the podium, so I had to put my front legs on it with my hind legs standing on the ground. Fireworks were going off in the distance, the sharp cracks irritating my ears. Midnight was working the crowd, parading in front of the reporters whilst I shuffled uncomfortably in place. Could they not have picked anyone else?

Midoriya looked a lot better than the last time I'd seen him, though both of his hands were bandaged, with the left one set in a cast. Still, he was smiling like a kid on christmas eve. Speaking of, Yoarashi seemed like he could barely stand still, though the other semifinalist was conspicuous in his absence.

"Unfortunately, Katsuki Bakugo was unable to attend due to personal reasons! We all hope you're understanding!"

Translation: they couldn't get him to come out and it wasn't worth the effort of forcing him to.

"Now for the medals!" Midnight finally announced, drawing everyone's attention to herself before pointing straight upwards. "Presenting them will be you-know-who!"

Anyone's arrival can be made awesome if it's accompanied by a trumpet solo, but All-Might owned it in a way that I'd never seen from anyone else. Appearing on top of the stadium roof silhouetted by the sunset yet instantly recognizable by his figure, the bombastic laugh, the leap down, just his sheer larger-than-life presence.

"I am-!"

Japan's premier Superhero landed with a heavy thump, in that classic pose, and the crowd practically exploded. For once I felt like joining in.

"Here with the medals!"

He gave a quick wave to the audience before turning towards us, and I felt my heart hammering in my chest. After having him as a teacher, seeing him goof off and crack jokes, it was easy to forget that this man was the Symbol of Peace, mightiest Hero in the nation and arguably the world, but now...

As if reading my mind he laughed heartily and gave us a broad smile, the kind that could instantly reassure you that there was nothing to worry about, before moving to grab the bronze medal.

"You're a strong one, Young Yoarashi!" He said as he put it around the boy's shoulders before giving him a hug and a pat in the back. "You'll be a real terror of villains with that Quirk of yours! But keep in mind, a Hero's got to make people smile too! They shouldn't fight with a grudge in their hearts!"

Even as prodigiously tall as he was, I had to bow my head to let All-Might hang the extra-length silver medal around my broad neck. He stepped up on to the platform and wrapped me in a firm yet warm hug, though it was a little awkward due to the size difference.

"You have come a long way from that nervous girl on the first day of Battle Training! Keep it up, believe in yourself, and not even the sky will be the limit for you! "

He gave me a reassuring pat and moved on, taking the gold medal from Midnight as he walked over to Midoriya. The wonder in that boy's eyes as he looked up at All-Might… it really was something else.

"Your progression has been astonishing to see from the Entrance Exams to here, Young Midoriya!" He said, before releasing the hug and stepping back, his voice turning serious. "However, advancement cannot come at the expense of your own body and health. In the future, I expect you to focus your efforts towards finding a more sustainable way to use your Quirk!"

After a moment of pause, All-Might's expression softened a little as he put a hand on Midoriya's shoulder, speaking in a low tone. "We will need to speak of your training in the coming days. But for now… I want you to know that I am proud of you."

With that he stepped away, turning towards the audience and launching into a speech, but I wasn't really listening anymore.

Something had been bothering me, after having been hugged by All-Might. That rail-thin man from earlier, whose smell had seemed oddly familiar. No, that was ridiculous to even suggest. It couldn't be-

-----

"Hey, gunhands! Isn't that the kid you failed you kill on the news?"

Katsuke Fujiwara set down his mug as the bar erupted in laughter, glancing up at the television screen. His hands curled into fists as he saw the white-scaled dragon standing on the podium, his fingers instinctively turning into metal.

That's all you are, a washed-up failure.

Before he could take out his anger on the television screen, Fujiwara saw movement at the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he saw that damned bartender looking at him, yellow eyes gleaming through the black mist, watching, waiting.

With a sigh, Fujiwara slumped back into his seat and took another sip from his drink.

-----

"You disappoint me, Shoto."

Shoto Todoroki blinked, startled out of the fugue he'd been in ever since his loss.

"Defeated in the quarterfinals? It is unworthy of your abilities." Enji Todoroki, better known as the Pro-Hero Endeavour, went on. "It seems that I will need to step up your training."

"..." Shoto shrugged his shoulders, his expression remaining utterly blank.

"Still." His father said as he turned to watch the award ceremony, a hand stroking his flaming beard. "Perhaps something of use may yet be salvaged from today..."

-----

"Have you found what you were looking for, Tomura?"

Tomura Shigaraki set the cup he'd been drinking from onto the computer table as he heard the voice come out of the loudspeaker beside him. In front of him he had a collection of screens showing footage of the Sports Event, illuminating the otherwise-dim room.

"No, master." He said with a shake of his head. "Maybe number four, or two going by the quarterfinals… but none of them really struck up my interest. Man, what a waste of time."

"Don't be so sure." The older voice spoke chidingly. "What do you make of number one?"

"Him?" Shigaraki pointed a finger at the green-haired boy. "A snot-nosed brat. Can't control his strength, even if he has a lot of it."

"Yes… an awful lot of power. And he seems to have so little control over it. Almost as if he only gained it a short while ago." The screen zoomed in, replaying the moment when All-Might handed out the gold metal. "He's trying, but he can't quite hide it. They know each other."

Shigaraki turned to look at the loudspeaker. "What are you talking about?"

"I had some suspicions before, but now, seeing those two together, I am certain of it. That boy… he is All-Might's successor, and the inheritor of his power."

SPORTS FESTIVAL ARC END

Spoiler: A/N

Happy New Year and belated Merry Christmas from me.

So, that's three entire story Arcs done. When I started writing Dragonspawn, I made a chapter-by-chapter plan up to this point, with a rough sketch of how to proceed beyond that. Over the course of the last year I have of course expanded on that framework and have plans in place for what I'm going to do next, but it's funny to think that this is as far as I ever really expected myself to get.

Next up is a Nejire Interlude, and after that we'll start moving towards the Internship Week.

 

[Blackout]

"Now, here at the Third Stage of the Third Years' Sports Festival, we've got our last match of the first round for you guys! Both from 3-A, its Nejire Hado vs Kenzo Okumura!"

"Yaaay!"

Nejire Hado practically skipped out into the field, her long violet hair bouncing in waves behind her. The Scavenger Hunt had been fun, but now it was time for the Tournament! Excitement! Fighting! Everybody would be bringing out their best to show off, one last time before graduating!

Kenzo Okumura was a tall, muscular boy her age, with a spiky mop of yellow hair, his skin glowing red-hot with in spite of the chilly aura that surrounded him. His Quirk was called Heat Absorption: it allowed him to drain and store thermal energy from whatever he touched, even the air, and convert it into motive power. As far as anyone had figured, in terms of raw physical strength he was the strongest student at UA, and proud of it.

That is, until two days ago.

"Yo, Hado! Don't think you're gonna have an easy time just because you're one of the Big Three, the rest of us have also been working hard to improve ourselves!! I'll show everyone those upstart First Years ain't got nothing on me!

"Oh! Do you have some new super move?!" She immediately perked up, bouncing in place as her mind ran through the possibilities. "Can you shoot fire out of your hands now?"

"Well, no, I-" Okumura began, taken aback, but Nejire kept talking.

"That would be so cool! You could propel yourself through the air!" Nejire continued to gush. "Ooh, ooh, is it that you can freeze the ground beneath your feet and surf on it?!"

"That's not what I me- wait, that does sound pretty cool-"

"No, I know, it's heat lasers from your eyes!"

"No, it's not a super move!" Okumura admitted, flustered.

"Aww, but I wanted to see-" Nejire whined.

"JUST SHUT UP AND FIGHT ALREADY!" He finally yelled out, somehow turning even redder.

"Alright!" She replied cheerfully.

"It seems like the combatants are ready to start! So get set, ready, go!"

Okumura surged forward, concrete shattering beneath his feet as he dashed at Nejire and closed the gap in a matter of seconds.

"Oh! You've been improving your speed again!" Nejire exclaimed as she leaned back, letting his fist whistle past her even as golden energy began to gather around her hands. "That's a really great tactic, since you only need to touch your opponent to incapacitate them!"

Nejire had herself always struggled with speed: increasing the power of her attacks resulted in a loss in speed, and vice versa. But that was alright, she'd adapted.

The energy blast hit Okumura at point-blank range, slamming into his chest with all the strength of a runaway truck, forcing the air out of his lungs and knocking him back. He skidded on the concrete before coming to a halt, and then lunged forward once again, his arms blurring as he threw a wild flurry of blows at Nejire.

"Ooh, is that Punchclock's style? You've been interning with him, right? How did you compensate for not having mechanical arms?" For her part, Nejire did not allow him to even touch her, dodging or deflecting his fists with her Quirk. Okumura grunted in frustration, releasing even more of his stored power as he threw another punch at Nejire, but she simply wasn't there anymore.

"Up here!" He raised his eyes to the sky, and suddenly his vision was filled with golden light. The energy hammered him into the ground, cracking the concrete, but when the dust cleared he was still standing.

Nejire frowned as she hovered over the battlefield, firing off several more blasts to rain down on Okumura, but the other student dodged the attacks with incredible speed. Anything she managed to hit him with wasn't strong enough to finish the job.

"I guess I'll just have to use my Super Move!" She exclaimed as she descended to the floor, gathering up another blast of golden energy. But this time she didn't release it, instead allowing it to spiral around her hands again and again, growing in power and intensity.

"Wave Motion Giga-Blast!"

The incascadent spiral of energy filled the stadium with light as it was emitted from her hands, fully half the width of the concrete arena itself. Yet for all of its massive size and power, the energy blast advanced at what felt like a snail's pace, slow enough that even a Quirkless human might just be able to outrun it.

"What are you playing at, Hado?!" Okumura grit his teeth as he flashed to the side at lightning speed, taking him well away from the trajectory of the attack. "You know you'll never hit me with something so slow!"

"I'm glad you asked that!" Nejire smiled happily as she boosted forward with a surge of her Quirk, speeding past her own attack. "The secret is, I'm not going to hit you with it, I'm going to hit it with you!"

Okumura's eyes widened as she rocketed past him, putting the boy between her and the Giga-Blast before coming to a halt, raising her palms towards him.

"Oh shi-"

His curse was cut short as Nejire blasted him in the face with another Wave Motion attack, far faster than the previous one but still strong enough to push him back. Right into the Giga-Blast, still slowly spiralling its way forward.

The detonation shook the entire stadium, and for a moment Nejire wondered if she'd used used too much power in that attack. It wasn't her maximum power and Okumura was one of the strongest students at UA outside of the Big Three, but even so…

Eventually the dust cleared, revealing Okumura slumped in the crater, knocked out cold.

"Kenzo Okumura is immobilized! Nejire Hado moves to the second round!"

She jumped a couple of times in celebration, before pausing to wipe a beat of sweat off her brow. As the medical bots rolled out onto the field to pick up her opponent, Nejire found her eyes wandering eventually settling on the VIP stands, looking for a specific figure.

-----

"What a super-flashy fight!" Mirio Togata offered her an enthusiastic high-five as Nejire returned to the stands. "Good work out there!"

"It really was." Tamaki Amakiji agreed, giving her a shy thumbs-up. "Much better than mine, anyway. Still, are you sure it's a good idea to show off your moves so early into the Tournament?"

"Ah, you guys!" Nejire smiled at her friends. "It's fine, that wasn't my only new Super Move anyway! You better watch out, if we end up matched together!"

"We probably won't…" The purple-haired boy said, casting his eyes to the floor.

"Anyway, we were thinking of heading to the cafeteria to grab something to eat." Mirio said, putting a hand on Tamaki's shoulder even as he faced Nejire. "You want to come too?"

"You guys go ahead!" Nejire exclaimed, I need to go visit the Pro-Hero stands first, but I'll catch up!"

"Oh?" Tamaki asked quizzically. "I thought you said you were happy with your current Internship?"

"Oh, no, it's not about an Internship!" Nejire laughed it off. "I just want to ask one of the Pro-Heroes there something!"

-----

It didn't take long for Nejire to skip her way through the hallways to find who she was looking for.

"-I understand your concerns, he and his parents have submitted the paperwork, and I legally cannot deny the transfer." Nedzu explained. "My hands are tied in that regard."

"So there's nothing you can do?" The Dragon Hero, Ryukyu, asked the mouse-like principal with a concerned expression on her features.

"On the contrary, my dear. It simply means I cannot interfere directly. I already have something in mind- leave it to me." Nedzu replied, hopping down from the bench he'd been standing on before looking at Nejire. "Ah, Nejire, did you need anything?"

"Nope!" She replied, popping the p. "Actually, I was here to talk to Ryukyu!"

"Splendid!" He exclaimed. "We were just finished here, so I'll leave you two to it."

"What is it that you wanted to discuss?" The older woman asked as she turned to look at Nejire, while Nedzu walked off in the other direction.

And there it was again. That tiniest little flinch in Ryukyu's features, the same one Nejire had seen on her face every time the two had met over the years, except for the first.

"If I may ask," She began. "What happened two years ago, when you rushed out from the internship interview?"

At first, she hadn't paid it much mind. Things happen. But Ryukyu's odd behaviour towards her, combined with meeting her sister in person for the first time, had been bothering her recently. She'd been asking around, as she usually did, and by now it was largely common knowledge amongst UA's student base that Ryuuzaki Tatsuma could not transform back into a human.

And yet, she was almost certain that the voice she'd spoken with on Ryukyu's phone had not been that of a dragon.

Despite her reputation, Nejire wasn't totally oblivious to what was going on around her. On the contrary, it was her perceptiveness that fuelled her endless curiosity. Some people told her asking so many questions was rude, but she didn't see it that way. If somebody didn't want to answer, they'd just tell her so, and that was that.

And for a few long moments it seemed like Ryukyu was about to do just that, until the older woman sighed and folded her arms.

"I suppose you do deserve to know. Let's find somewhere more private."

-----

Ryukyu took Nejire to one of the many empty meeting rooms Cementoss had included in the stadium's design. After all, the entire purpose of the Festival was to facilitate interactions between Pro-Heroes and students.

"I guess I should get started then." She sighed. "Two and a half years ago, on the day you approached me for an internship, I'd promised to spar with my little sister- Ryuuzaki Tatsuma, she told me she met you at school?"

Nejire nodded eagerly. "Yep, we trained together before the Festival."

"Right. She'd always wanted to follow in my footsteps and become a hero, and I'd promised to help her. She was excited. And then…" Ryukyu paused, swallowing heavily. "...I forgot. I didn't take it seriously enough, and got carried away with the interview. I lost track of time. The worst mistake I ever made."

"And that was when she called you?" Nejire asked, a sudden feeling of dread creeping up on her.

"That's right." The older woman said, sounding like she was far away. " 'Zaki was angry, and she wasn't keeping track of her surroundings. I don't know if it would have changed anything, but- on her way back home she was ambushed by a villain with a grudge against me, and nearly died. We still don't know exactly how or why, but ever since then Ryuuzaki hasn't been able to return to her human form."

...

For a few seconds, Nejire was left speechless.

"That's horrible!" She felt like she'd been punched in the gut.

"It is." Ryukyu said flatly. "But every day I'm thankful it wasn't worse. And though I'll never forgive myself for it, 'Zaki has. She's alive, she has made great new friends and she's fulfilling her dream- she's happy. What more could I ask for?" She paused, looking down at Nejire, her expression turning soft. "So please, don't beat yourself up about what happened. It's beyond anyone's power to change, now."

-----

In spite of the older woman's words, the tale of what had happened two years ago weighed heavily in Nejire's mind as she made her way down to the cafeteria and idly began filling her tray. She remembered it like yesterday, eagerly bouncing into Ryukyu Hero Agency and chatting the older Hero's ears off. She'd been so excited for her first internship!

But because she'd distracted her, someone had almost been killed, and left crippled for life. Nejire wasn't naive enough not to realize that she hadn't known about Ryukyu's appointment with her sister, and even if she had there would have been absolutely no way to know Ryuuzaki would be attacked by a villain.

And yet.

Through her actions, directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, someone had been hurt. It did not sit right with her to follow Ryukyu's advice and just pretend nothing had ever happened. She had become a Hero to help people who had been hurt, and there was someone who had been hurt. That was all there was to it.

But how to go about it? It had all happened years ago, and as Ryukyu had said, her sister had moved on. For all that people thought her insensitive, Nejire knew that dropping in out of the blue and trying to apologize would do nothing but open up old wounds.

"Hey! Nejire! Over here!" Mirio waved over from the table he and Tamaki were sitting at, a third seat reserved between the two of them. Nejire smiled as she saw her friends, an idea popping into her head as she walked over.

"Finished with your mysterious business?" Mirio asked as she set her tray down, scooting his wide shoulders to the side to give her some room.

"Yeah!" She smiled. "Actually, I wanted to ask you for advice." She sat down, and hesitated for just a moment. "What would you do if you suddenly found out that, a long time ago, someone else got hurt as a result of your actions?"

"That's quite a question you've got there!" Mirio said, putting his right hand on his chin and leaning forward in an exaggerated thoughtful pose. "For one, I have a hard time believing you'd ever hurt anyone, Nejire!"

"Not on purpose." She replied, making a face at her friend. "I couldn't have known it would happen, but if I hadn't done what I did they wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"Then it's not really your fault, right?" Tamaki piped up. "You can't take responsibility for everything that happens indirectly because of you."

"I know, I know." Nejire replied. "I know it isn't my fault, but I still want to do something for them, if that makes sense?"

"That does sound like you." Mirio smiled fondly. "Well, considering the circumstances, an apology might not give the right impression." He leaned back on his seat, his expression furrowing. "There's no easy answer to your question, but if I was in that position... I think I'd still try to do whatever I could. You can't undo what happened, but maybe you can still help them, just by being there for them?"

Nejire poked her cheek thoughtfully. "I guess you're right… but I still don't know how to do that."

"Well, it's a little hard to say since we don't know who it is."

Nejire hesitated. As much as she wanted their advice, it wasn't her place to-

"It wouldn't happen to be one of the First Year students, would it?" She squeaked as Tamaki spoke up, leaning forward with a knowing look on his face. "I won't ask you to reveal anything you've been told in confidence, but you've been asking a lot of questions recently, and I think I have a pretty good idea who you mean. And if it's them, or even just another student, well… remember what Snipe told us on our first day back from Spring Break?"

It felt like a lightbulb lit up over Nejire's head. As Third Years, they'd be expected to look after and mentor the younger students. That's what Snipe had talked about on their first day of the semester.

"Yes!" She said, springing to her feet and snapping her fingers. "That's exactly it!"

The more she thought about it, the more right it felt. Nobody would think twice about a Third Year looking after her juniors. And maybe, just maybe, she could help someone who had been hurt because of her.

"I am going to be the best Senpai this school has ever seen!"

Spoiler: A/N

Writing Nejire is hard. But next time, we return to your regularly scheduled dragon adventures.

 

[Blackout]

Work on Chapter 25 is proceeding at good pace (about 75% done), but in the meanwhile with Sports Festival Arc finished I decided to once again commission art of Ryuuzaki as a reward for myself, but I thought you guys might be interested in what Ryuuzaki's human form looks like as well:

Spoiler: Spoiler for size:

Art by the wonderful wen9.

 

[Blackout]

Just get angry.

Easier said than done. The midday sun glared down at UA's training fields with oppressive brightness, the large expanse of ground laid out before me. Technically classes would only resume the day after tomorrow, but the school's facilities were open for use and I… hadn't been able to stay cooped up in the house for another moment.

Now, let's try this again.

I tried imagining Ryuko getting hurt, like she'd suggested. Shot by Fujiwara, or beaten down by a villain. But… it didn't feel real enough. She wouldn't have gotten caught off guard, like I had. And what villain could defeat her?

Logically, I knew she could get hurt. But I couldn't imagine it. Or maybe I just didn't quite want to.

I sighed. It probably wasn't healthy to rely on this, but-

Fujiwara's face, twisted with mocking laughter as he stood over my bleeding, dying body. Ryuo standing in that hallway, spitting on everything that I stood for and cared about, smugly secure in the knowledge that he was untouchable to me.

It took a moment, but suddenly I felt a spike of heat in my chest, a burning sensation that didn't quite hurt but was by no means pleasant either. I felt it travel up my throat, a feeling of incredible pressure building up behind my closed jaws until they were forced open, a jet of fire spilling out between my teeth.

Orange flames washed over the sand pit, and no matter how hard I tried they just kept coming, until finally dying down of their own accord. I gagged as the eruption sputtered out, coughing a few times before looking out over my handiwork: fused, glassy clumps of molten sand dotting the field.

Now that I knew what to look for, I could coax it out semi-reliably and "ignite" the fire breath, but once the critical point was reached I had no control over it except to point it in the vague direction of the target. I could not stop it until it had run its course, aim it, or adjust its power. Nor had I been able to reproduce the blue flames since the Festival, though on the upside the process didn't drain me nearly as badly after the fact.

If I had to describe the sensation of breathing fire, well, for one, "breathing" is a bit of a misnomer, it feels more like vomiting. Except with fire. Which almost feels worse, even if it didn't burn me.

Regardless, as it was, my fire breath wasn't much use in a combat situation, unless it called for indiscriminate destruction. I had been experimenting with it all morning, and hadn't made much of a progress.

Then there was the other revelation from three days ago. All-Might was- at least some of the time -an emaciated husk of a man. It might sound preposterous, but everything fell into place with that realization. Scent alone could be explained, but he had had the same hair and eyes, the same height- and suddenly, Nedzu's comment to him made sense. It all clicked.

But the question was, what was I supposed to do about it? I mean, this was All-Might's secret identity that I was talking about. To call that revelation monumental would be the understatement of the century. I thought back to what Ryuko had said the day before the Festival, about how a Hero's greatest tool was their indirect effect upon the people at large, and All-Might being the Symbol of Peace. If his weakness came to light… every Villain in the country would be falling over each other to exploit it and kill the Greatest Hero, while society's trust in his invincibility would be shattered.

It was not an exaggeration to say that this simple nugget of information that I had stumbled upon had the power to upend the Status Quo of the current society, and cause chaos and upheaval across the nation.

And that was absolutely terrifying, pressing on my shoulders like an oppressive weight, keeping me awake at night. I didn't know what to do about it. I didn't want to think about it. The mere idea of accidentally spreading this knowledge was petrifying to think about.

Feeling helpless and frustrated, I returned to physical exercising. I could decide what to do about it later. I couldn't just stand around all day.

Like any Hero School worth the name, UA naturally had a wide variety of work-out equipment for students with enhanced strength, but most of them were widely impractical for me to use due to my anatomy and size. What was the point of a multi-ton chest press machine if you couldn't fit into it?

But that was where the difference between UA and any other Hero School came into play. I'd asked Vlad King about the issue during the leadup to the Sports Festival, and the very next day Cementoss had constructed a set of rudimentary weight machines for me to use in one corner of UA's vast training fields.

I walked up to one of them, a towering construction of concrete and metal, and picked up the huge metal bar lying in front of it between my jaws. I dug my claws into the hard-packed dirt and pulled, putting the power of my entire body into it. Attached to the bar was a carbon nanotube rope that was connected to a massive slab of concrete via a pulley. Little by little I pulled it into the air, feeling my neck muscles straining beneath my scales. Then once I hit the machine's limit, I slowly lowered the weight down again, before repeating the whole process all over again. And again. And again.

It wasn't fancy, but it got the job done, and allowed me to exert myself safely without risking damaging anything. For neither the first nor the last time I felt grateful for getting into UA. Physical exercise was… calming, allowing me to clear my mind. I enjoyed it. And whilst before the Festival I had primarily focused on patching up my weaknesses, my clash with Midoriya had reminded me that I shouldn't forget continuing to improve on my strengths either. Chiefly raw strength.

Getting overpowered by a finger-flick has a way of humbling you. And motivating.

So I continued my exercise routine, cycling between different methods. Being quadrupedal I physically couldn't do bench presses, but one-limb reps were possible if awkward, including with my tail. By the end of it I could feel my muscles burning, and though being immune to the effects of overheating I did not sweat or pant like a mammal, but I could feel the warmth radiating from me as it built up.

Finally I moved on to the last machine, which was really just a concrete slab bigger than I was, set on a pair of metal rails. Walking up to it, I set my shoulder against one side and heaved against it with all of my considerable strength and mass. And despite it's incredible weight, I could feel it slowly shifting as I pushed it along, the rails keeping it moving in a straight line. When I reached one end of the track I switched sides, and pushed it back. Ten repetitions. Twenty. Twenty-five.

Finally done, I slumped down on the ground, exhausted. I curled around myself, tucking my tail under my chin, even as I was gasping for air. The air around me shimmered from the heat, and I felt my eyelids pulling down.

I did not fight it, and it didn't take long for me to doze off.

-----

I blinked slowly, waking up as if in a stupor. Rain and wind beat against my face, whilst lightning flashed in the distance. I was standing at the shore of a small rock island, the seas churning and roiling all around me, whiteheads bursting among the dark waves.

I felt a deep, primeval fear gripping my chest, and at that same instant the sea began to swell, the first waves lapping against my bare feet, sending cold chills up my spine. The water was rising.

Feeling impossibly sluggish, I turned around to see the bare stone cliffs behind me ascending towards the sky. My only choice was to climb. I began running, my feet splashing on the ankle-deep water. Dark shapes were just barely visible in the water, just beyond where the waterfront had been mere moments ago.

Hurriedly, I began climbing, but my hands felt far too small and soft and weak. I could barely pull myself up the rocky cliffside, and the rough edges of the stone scraped my hands, though the pain felt… distant somehow.

I climbed as fast as I could, but no matter how hard I tried I could not outclimb the rising water, always lapping at my heels. By now the rocks were slippery with the rain and my own blood, and just as I reached for a new handle hold I lost my grip, dangling on the side of the cliff by one arm. Just then lightning struck the island, so close that I could smell the ozone, illuminating the ocean around me for just an instant.

The sea was teeming with sharks. Distinctive, sleek shapes swimming through the water, circling around the island in their thousands. Watching. Waiting.

Finally I reached the island's peak, a tiny flat surface just wide enough for me to stand on. All around me the ocean swelled. It would reach me in a matter of seconds.

Triangular fins pierced the surface of the water, like the teeth of some great ocean monster. And where droplets of blood fell from my cut palms, they began trashing, churning the water in their frenzy.

There was nowhere to run. The water was up to my knees now. I was shivering.

I was defenseless.

I felt something bump against my leg.

I was going to di-

"Ryuuzaki! Wake up!"

I sprang to my feet in a flash, the sudden movement kicking up and forcing the blurry figure standing by my side to jump away to avoid my uncoiling tail.

Confused, I blinked my eyes several times in rapid succession and the figure resolved itself into Kendo, looking worriedly at me.

"Are you alright?" She asked. "You were tossing and turning in your sleep."

"Mmm." I muttered, forcing my breathing to even out. Slowly, I felt my heart rate drop to something approaching normal, and replied again clearer this time. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you here for the meeting with 1-A's Presidents?"

"Yeah, I-"

"Because I did have a timer set, I wasn't going to oversleep." I muttered. "You're half an hour early."

"Of course, I know you wouldn't." Kendo gave me a disarming smile, somehow defusing my indignation-slash-embarrassment. Seriously, how was she so good at this? "In fact, there was something I wanted to talk about with you before the meeting."

I shook my head, clearing out the last vestiges of sleep. "Right. Go ahead."

"So, uh-" Kendo began. "My Dad's throwing a party to celebrate the Sports Festival tomorrow evening, and I wanted to ask if you'd come?"

…

I short-circuited.

We were friends?

I examined the subconscious reply with some disbelief. Of course Kendo and I were friends. But, like, friend-friends? Invite-over-to-your-house kind of friends? I mean, I invited her over too, but that was extenuating circumstances and I also invited Tokage who was not my friend and…

Dammit, why was I getting this emotional over this? It was just a simple invite, I'd had those before… Hadn't I? Had I ever been invited over to a friend's house?

That was...

"If you can't make it or- um, it's fine but I'd really appreciate it-" Kendo spoke up haltingly, hesitation in her green eyes as she looked up at me, and I was momentarily reminded that for all that she acted like 1-B's Big Sister, she was still fifteen years old.

And she couldn't- of course she couldn't see that I was genuinely touched by her offer. To her it would have looked like I was just impassively staring at her, with no reaction at all.

"I would, um, really like to, but-" I began, stumbling over my words. "You know I can't fit into a normal house?"

"Oh! That's been taken care of." Kendo assured me, her smile returning. "It's going to be a backyard barbeque."

"Oh." Well, then I guess I had no excuse. I did not typically enjoy social gatherings, but… it was for Kendo. She'd done more for me than she probably even realized. It was the least I could do for her. And it could be fun. "I would be glad to accept your invitation, then."

"Thank you!" She smiled happily. "Yui will be there too- I asked Tokage and Pony as well, but they weren't able to make it."

"Right." I said, stretching my neck. "You'll need to send me your address, I have no idea where you live. But we should probably get going to the meeting."

-----

I'd never actually been to 1-A's classroom before, but it was the exact same as ours: same giant sliding door, same rows of desks, albeit all of theirs were human-sized. Iida gave us a stiff and formal wave as we entered, followed by a slightly hesitant one from the other occupant of the empty room.

I had not had the opportunity to talk to 1-A's Vice-President yet, a relatively tall girl with her black hair pulled into a ponytail, but I had become quite acquainted with her Quirk during the Sports Festival.

"I know some of us have met before, but I should think it would be best to start with introductions, so that we are all on the same page." Iida began, making a chopping motion with his hand. "Tenya Iida, Class President of 1-A!"

"Nice to meet you!" Kendo replied. "I'm Itsuka Kendo, President of 1-B! Tatsuma's been telling good things about you so it's nice to finally meet up!"

"Ryuuzaki Tatsuma, Vice-President of 1-B."

"My name is Momo Yaoyorozu, Vice-President of 1-A." The raven-haired girl introduced herself, before turning to me. "I wanted to say I am sorry about the flashbang, we did not realize how much it would affect you." She said with an apologetic bow. "It must have been painful."

"It's alright, it was a legitimate strategy." I replied, though I winced at the memory of the horrendous headache it had given me.

"So, did you guys have an election to select the Presidents too?" Kendo asked her counterpart curiously.

"Ah, we did, but..." He suddenly seemed bothered by something, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Iida here lost said election." Yaoyorozu finished for him with a slight smile. "It was actually Midoriya who won it originally with myself in second place, but, ah, after certain events he decided to hand it off to Iida."

"I'm sure he would have made a wonderful President!" Iida said, waving his hand in the air. "But I will perform the duties entrusted to me with the full extent of my abilities!"

"Wait, so he made you Class President directly? But wouldn't it go to Yaoyorozu if she was the runner-up in the election?"

Iida spluttered, and I suddenly realized the foot I'd put into my mouth.

"I'm sure 1-A resolved the situation in an orderly fashion." Kendo intervened in a conciliatory tone, before turning towards me. "Anyway, we should probably move on to the topic of this meeting. It was your idea, so why don't you start us off?"

I froze. Way to put me on the spot there Kendo. I tried to glare at her, but it only bounced off of her sunny smile.

"Right." I began, composing myself. "My thinking was, it's been a month since we started at UA, but our two classes have barely interacted. Until now we've all been busy acclimating to UA and getting ready for the Sports Festival, but with that over I thought it was high time we had a formal meeting."

"That makes sense." Yaoyorozu nodded along. "Iida also mentioned you had an idea for some sort of joint activity between our two classes."

"Well, more of a vague outline than a concrete idea." I replied, scratching my side with my hind leg. "During the Festival I couldn't help but notice that there was some bad blood between some members of our classes, and I thought… it'd be best to nip it in the bud. So, um, I was thinking we could maybe organize a meeting of both classes so that everyone can get to know each other? It could be any number of things, Quirk Football, watching a movie..."

"Ah, yes!" Iida spoke up as I trailed off, pushing up his glasses. "I did some planning during and after the Festival, and I thought it would be best to start us off with a session of joint training, with maybe some sparring. It's something everyone is familiar with and has an interest in, and I think it would be a good way to build up camaraderie between the Classes. We all have much to learn from each other!"

"Yeah, I think making it a training-related event is the right decision, for our first real interclass meeting." Kendo mused. "It'll be easier to convince some of the more difficult members of each class to go along and participate, if there's an incentive for them in it. We can try the other ideas later!"

"We'll definitely have to get the teachers' permission for something like that, though." Yaoyorozu pointed out. "And it would likely need to be kept during school hours, so that Recovery Girl is available if something happens."

"That's right." I said. "We should come up with a comprehensive plan before we go to Vlad King and your Homeroom Teacher. It'll be better if we have something complete to show for ourselves."

"Of course." Yaoyorozu nodded and rolled down her sleeve to pop out a notepad and a pen, the objects seemingly phasing through her skin.

-----

I was used to stares.

At first it had been whenever I was out with Ryuko, once she started to gain fame as a Hero, but back then I'd been able to escape the public's attention whenever I was alone. After… well, you know, I had lost even that. Dragons tended to draw a lot of eyes on them.

So being noticed while out in public was nothing new to me. But even then, after the Sports Festival… it was different. An unusual physical appearance was one thing, but apparently a silver medalist in UA's Sports Festival was quite another.

Still, my outwardly intimidating form seemed to serve to still keep the passersby at an arm's length, as nobody quite dared to come talk to me. But I saw the looks they gave me as I passed by, and overheard a lot more than they ever realized.

"That's the kid who came in second…"

"...That's a kid?"

"Let's face it, being a dragon is way cooler than any amount of super-strength…"

"Did you see how badly the arena was wrecked, though?

"...Wonder who would take her as an intern..."

Kendo had sent me her address, out in the suburbs on the other side of Musutafu, and so I made my way through the city, pushing my way through crowded streets. It wasn't like it was tiring, I could jog three times that distance backwards without an issue, it was just… slow.

Couldn't take the train, couldn't fly and couldn't run. Sigh.

As I finally started to get closer to the address I'd been given, I began to notice a slight commotion,

It was Yui, making her way in the same direction I was. Unlike me, she didn't seem to be scary enough to avoid people trying to talk to her, and I saw more than one person attempt to engage her in conversation only to be met with such a cold shoulder I could almost feel it all the way over.

As soon as Yui saw me she surreptitiously yet rapidly made her way over to my side, and I could see a tiny sigh of relief escape her lips as she entered the small bubble of personal space the presence of a giant dragon created amidst the traffic.

"They've been bothering you?" I asked her as she smoothed out the edge of her shirt.

"Yes." She replied succinctly. "People are curious. About the Cavalry Battle."

"...I'm sor-"

"Stop that." She snapped. "Do not say you're sorry for things you did not cause."

"Sorry." I replied, tilting my head to look at her.

She just sighed, but conceded with a shake of her head.

Yui seemed to be a lot more confident in navigating the busy streets than I was, and with me acting as a proverbial icebreaker we made good time, walking in comfortable silence. It didn't take very long for us to reach the Kendo family home, a decently sized house surrounded by a high fence, but as we approached I could hear a bizarre racket coming from its direction.

"Do you hear that?" Yui frowned.

It was almost like… barking?

...Oh.

As we got closer I saw Kendo waiting for us at the gate, alongside the biggest Akita mix I'd ever seen wildly jumping at her, trying to squeeze past and barking madly in my direction.

"Hi Yui! Hi Tatsuma! There's a slight prob- Haru, down." She spoke up, pointing down at the ground. The large dog looked as mutinous as I'd ever seen from one, but begrudgingly stopped jumping around even as he continued to bark and growl at me.

"I can tell." I said as I flinched away from the loud noise.

"Yeah, I didn't think he'd react this badly to you- No, Haru, stop." With an exasperated sigh, she tugged on his collar and gently yet firmly pulled him away. To my surprise, despite probably weighing considerably more than Kendo did, he followed her as she guided him towards the front door of the house. "I'll just… take him inside, one moment."

As she and the dog disappeared inside Yui glanced ever so slightly up at me. "You said you liked dogs."

"I like dogs." I bit out. "Dogs don't like me."

A handful of moments later Kendo emerged from the front door once more, rubbing her temples. "I'm sorry about Haru. He's usually a huge old softie, but sometimes he can get a little protective. That dog sat by my crib when I was a baby."

"It's alright, I'm used to it." I mumbled. "Most animals don't enjoy the presence of a giant apex predator."

"I still should have thought of it before he smelled you coming." Kendo said apologetically. "I took him inside and gave him one of his toys to occupy him, we can try introducing you to each other properly once he's calmed down."

"Uh-huh." I nodded with just a little bit of disbelief. That dog did not look like it wanted anything to do with me.

"Anyway, follow me!" She brightened up again, gesturing to lead us around the house, where I could already pick out the faint smell of grilled meat wafting from. "The party is this way!"

The Kendo family house had an expansive backyard with rows of bushes and trees, even bigger than the one ours had and that one had enough room for a dragon to land. There were a few people already there, standing around or sitting on the lawn chairs scattered around the place conversing with one another, though our arrival prompted quite a few looks in our direction- or, well, mostly me. A dragon is quite attention-grabbing. Kendo took us to the large grill at the far end of the backyard.

Kendo's father was a big man, not as tall as my father but somehow even wider. Most of it came from his broad shoulders, with an impressively massive pair of arms- I could see where her daughter had gotten her Quirk from. He also had the same orange hair and a slight stubble on his chin, though unlike Kendo he had dark eyes.

"Good to see you again, Yui!" He spoke as he stepped away from the grill for a moment and placed a friendly hand on her shoulder, which still caused the small girl to stumble slightly as he turned to look up at me. "And who's this, Itsuka?"

"Dad, I'm pretty sure you can recognize her by description." She remarked. "This is Ryuuzaki Tatsuma, one of my friends. Tatsuma, this is Yuta Kendo, my father."

"You're right, there's something distinctive about her…" He stroked his chin while Kendo groaned, before he perked up. "Well, it's great to meet you! Kendo's been saying good things about you!"

"Thank you?"

"Ha!" He clapped me in the shoulder with surprising strength. "You'll do fine! Here, Itsuka said you liked meat."

He shoved a large tray of barbequed ribs at me, which I awkwardly clutched with my claws, while Yui and Kendo received smaller plates.

"Find somewhere to sit down." He told us. "Or lie down, if you'd prefer." He continued, looking at me. "Itsuka can show you around!"

She took us across the backyard, stopping a few times to exchange a word or two with some of the other guests, leading to a slightly more secluded corner where a table, a few chairs and a large mat had been set aside.

"So, are you excited for tomorrow?" Kendo asked as we sat down. "We get to see the results of the Pro-Hero Draft "

"I suppose." I said. "I'd say 'nervous' is the more accurate term. I don't… know how many Pro-Heroes would find a use for a giant Dragon."

"Relax, I'm sure it'll be fine." Kendo said. "You got second place, there's no way nobody's drafting you."

"Vlad King would figure something out." Yui added.

"I guess."

We chatted amicably for a while, just the three of us, occasionally pausing to eat our meals.

"Are you sure you're not ignoring the other guests in favor of us?" I eventually asked Kendo, even as I finished off my tray.

"They're mostly neighbours and a few relatives, I spent the last few hours entertaining them so I can hang out with you guys."

"Any old friends from before UA?"

"There's Yui." Kendo nodded at the shorter girl, who gave a cheeky wave. "As for others, well… a lot of the others stopped hanging around with me after I got accepted. I guess they think I'm too good for them now." She said a little sadly. "Anyway, I think Haru's probably calmed down enough to try to introduce you two again, properly this time."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Here, take this." Kendo handed me a strip of dried meat, which I stared at dumbly. "When I bring him out, give it to him. It'll help get him used to you."

"Will it, though?" I questioned. "He seemed pretty angry."

"Trust me, I've known that dog my whole life." She assured me. "It'll be fine. He'll be more comfortable now that he can see you're already inside the property and not a threat, rather than an intruder trying to enter."

"If you say so."

Kendo headed inside while Yui and I fell into a comfortable silence again. After a few moments, I spotted Yuta Kendo walking towards us with another tray of meat.

"Itsuka said you were running out when she passed by, so I brought some more!" He told me.

"A-actually, I'm fine." I hesitated. I'd already eaten a full plate-

"Are you sure?" He asked, his eyes boring into my soul. "One tray can't have filled a dragon, surely. And I would be a terrible host."

"Um, well, I guess…?"

And that's how I got presented with a second tray of barbequed meat.

Eventually, Kendo returned with Haru in tow, the large dog following at her side, his ears pulling down and tail going still as they approached me. But at least he wasn't barking and growling, so progress?

"Haru, this is Ryuuzaki Tatsuma. Tatsuma, this is Haru." Kendo spoke calmly, gesturing towards me.

I set the treat on the ground, nudging it towards Haru and feeling immensely silly. But to my surprise he took the offered piece of meat, and seemed to relax. He circled around me a few times, sniffing at me, before finally giving me a look that I could have sworn said "we're cool, but I'm watching you."

Then, just like that, the last of the tension bled away from his stance and the tongue rolled out of his mouth, before trotting over to Yui and pressing against her leg. She leaned down and began stiffly yet gently petting the huge dog, his tail happily thumping against the ground.

"So, uh, Kendo." I began, turning towards her. "Your father won't let me refuse new servings."

"Eh, he does that." She shrugged. "He's… competitive. If you give him a challenge, like being able to feed a dragon to satisfaction, he's liable to take it up on his pride."

"You know how much meat I can eat in one go?" I asked incredulously. "I don't want to eat your family out of the house."

"Then just tell him you're not hungry?"

"He knows." I whined.

"You are a terrible liar." Yui agreed, whilst continuing to give Haru scratches.

"Don't be melodramatic." Kendo chided gently. "Look, he's an adult and knows what he got into, I told him how much you eat. Either he'll admit he's wrong, or you get to eat as many barbequed ribs as your heart desires."

I huffed, but grabbed another bite from the tray and swallowed it whole. To be fair they were pretty good.

Kendo's father returned few moments later with another tray that I accepted without complaint, setting himself down on one of the chairs, causing it to creak under his weight.

"So, how does it feel after your first Sports Festival, eh kids?"

"Horrible." Yui said as she stood up, and Haru shook himself before trotting off to find another source of affection. "I hate being famous."

"Tell me about it." I mumbled.

"Ah, you would know, I suppose." Yuta Kendo said, scratching his chin. "You know, Itsuka has quite a few posters of your sister in her room."

"Dad!" Kendo squeaked.

"Well, what about you?" I turned to look at her. "Enjoying the fame?"

"Aw, it's not that bad!" Kendo replied. "I had a grade-schooler come up to me and tell me she thought I was cool. It was cute."

"Well, in any case, I think it's an occasion worth celebrating." Her father said, and lifted a six-pack of cans onto the table.

"Is that… beer?"

"Just this once." He winked. "Don't think it'll be a regular occurrence, but we can make an exception today."

Yui hesitantly grabbed a can, but I shook my head. "Thank you, but I'm going to abstain."

"Come one, it's just beer." Kendo elbowed me lightly. "It's barely enough to affect a human, and you probably won't even feel it."

"I am a teetotaler."

"At fifteen?" Kendo's father asked.

"Better sooner rather than later." I replied noncommittally. "I don't… like the idea of giving up control over myself. And besides, it's easier to abstain totally than try to moderate your intake."

"I can respect that." He nodded, and whisked away two of the cans. "Don't think you two are getting more because of that!"

Time passed. Most of the other guests seemed intimidated by my presence and didn't approach us, though a handful dropped by to give congratulations. In the end, Yuta Kendo's persistence won out over the endless pit of my stomach, and he collected the last, half-empty tray with a triumphant look upon his face.

Eventually, as the day began to turn into night and most of the guests had left, it was time for Yui and I to leave.

"Well, Kendo, it's been fun, but I should probably head home too."

"You can call me Itsuka, if you want to." She smiled up at me.

"Alright."

…

A few seconds passed.

"You know you don't need my permission to call me by my first name."

"It's rude." Kendo said.

"I don't care what people call me." I shrugged.

"Then I'll call you… 'Zaki."

I so desperately wanted to show her the disgusted face I would have made if I could have, but I had to settle for an indignant huff from my nostrils. Hearing it from someone else felt… sacrilegious.

"Fiiine. You can call me Ryuuzaki." I grumbled. "Happy now?"

She gave me a blindingly bright smile.

Spoiler: A/N

There you have it. A bit of a breather Chapter, but we did just get out of the Sports Festival.

Also I wanted to write a Dragon meeting a Dog. Next Chapter will feature more plot progression as we get to the Internship selections.

 

[Blackout]

"Hmmm." Vlad King made an impressed-sounding grunt as we finished our presentation of our plan, Itsuka, Iida, Yaoyorozu and I clustered in the teachers' office.

"You came up with this between yourselves?" 1-A's Homeroom teacher, Aizawa, asked us. I hadn't met the tired-looking man before, but I recognized his voice from the Sports Festival.

"Yes, sir!" Iida replied stiffly.

"It's a good idea." Vlad King mused. "We hadn't planned on doing joint training until much later, but the arguments you've presented for it are reasonable. I don't see an issue with it."

"It would need to take place on school hours, as you yourselves noted." The other teacher mumbled, sounding tired. "And that means taking away from official lessons."

"So is that a no?" I asked nervously.

"It just means it will be difficult to fit into the schedule. Especially as we'll need to find a date that works for both classes." He replied evenly, glancing at Vlad King. "I'm not saying no, I'm just saying that it might take a while. Certainly not until after the Internships, we have our hands full getting all of you ready for your first brush with the professional Hero world. But there should be a brief respite after that, before we need to start preparing for the Finals."

"We'll get back to you on it." Vlad King concluded. "Now get to class, we've got a big day ahead of us."

-----

There was a certain sense of nervous energy in the classroom as we awaited Vlad King. I could hear the same stories I'd heard from Yui and Itsuka circulating amongst my classmates, tales of their first brushes with public recognition and fame, and their reactions to it. For my part I stayed curled on my seat at the back of the class- I didn't feel like I had anything to add to the conversation, having gotten used to it years ago, and besides, I suspected if I opened my mouth nothing more than a dry croak would come out.

After all, in only a few minutes we'd find out if all of that sweat and toil and tooth-grinding effort we had put into the Sports Festival had been worth it.

...

Anticipation really was the worst.

Finally, the metallic creak of the classroom door opening instantly silenced all discussion, as Vlad King's muscular form stepped inside. Even without enhanced hearing you could have heard a pin drop as he walked up to his desk, dropped off his stack of papers and cleared his throat as he addressed the class.

"Today, we will be reviewing the results of the Pro-Hero Draft, and seeing which Agencies offered you the opportunity of working there in the upcoming Internship Week." Vlad King stated evenly, his gaze wandering across the room. "Remember, even if you were not picked, you will still have a chance to work with the Pros in one of the Agencies that have entered into a partnership with UA. That being said, let us move on to the results." He clicked on the remote on his desk, and a screen descended from the ceiling before winking into life, the results popping up one by one.

The first one was, as expected, Yoarashi with well over four and half thousand offers. Everyone had seen it coming of course, his performance had been superlative.

Next, Tokage came in second by a wide margin, with a little over a thousand offers. Shishida was third, nine hundred and thirty. Rin, three hundred and one. Then it was the ones who hadn't even made it to the tournament. Honenuki, ninety-eight. Shiozaki, sixty. Monoma, thirty-two.

With each new entry, I felt the yawning pit in my stomach open up.

And there it finally was.

Ryuuzaki Tatsuma.

Thirteen offers.

I had of course expected it would be bad, but even so- I would have thought- I didn't think-

I could hear a few of my classmates clamouring in surprise, but a buzzing sensation in my ears drowned them out as I tried to organize my thoughts.

Just thirteen.

I knew it was going to be rough, considering my… circumstances, but I had hoped that a second-place finish might help me in that regard.

"Check the ones at the top of the list." Vlad King said as he dropped a paper on my desk before walking away, seemingly having delivered the rest of the lists while I was lost inside my own head. I turned it over and saw that three entries had been highlighted, sucking in a breath as I read them over while.

Ryukyu Hero Agency, the one that I'd seen coming even if we had never explicitly discussed it.

Gang Orca Hero Agency, a prospect that I'd never even considered but one that immediately struck me as a terrible idea.

But then there was one that made my eyes widen as I read it, blinking slowly to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

Endeavour Hero Agency.

The Number Two Hero in all of Japan. What did he want from me? I mean, he had shown interest in me all the way back at Ryuko's award ceremony, but-

"Oh, wow!" Kend- Itsuka said as she peered past me to look at the list, standing on her tip-toes. "You got nominations from three Top Ten Heroes?"

"It only makes sense." Monoma noted from the side, stroking his chin. "Considering your unique circumstances, only the largest and most successful Agencies would have the resources to invest in housing a dragon for a week."

"Still, that's incredible!" Itsuka went on. "Yoarashi and Shishida both had one Top Ten Hero make them an offer, and the rest of us didn't have any at all!"

"Ryuko doesn't count." I mumbled, still trying to make heads or tails out of this whole thing. "She's my sister."

"Of course she does!" Pony piped up from in front of me, standing on her seat to see the list. "Plus that's still two Top Ten, and the rest of these are pretty high-tier Agencies too. Everyone can still only pick one, so quality's more important than quantity, right?"

"I guess." I mumbled, but the tension in my chest eased off slightly. "Thanks."

"That's what friends are for!"

"Tatsuma!" I heard the yell from across the room and turned to see Tokage stomping my direction, brandishing her own list of offers in my direction. "What the hell is this?"

"What are you talking about?" I tilted my head at her.

"This!" She said, slamming the list onto my desk, though the action was made slightly awkward due to the fact that it was almost as tall as she was. I looked down and saw the first name on it. Ryukyu Hero Agency.

Oh.

"Is this some kind attempt at pity?" She snarled. "Because I don't want any of y-"

"No." I interrupted her with a growl of my own, wishing I could pinch my nose. "I know you are going to automatically assume the worst about me, but believe me when I say this: I don't think I've ever even mentioned you to my sister, aside from that time you were over at my house. If she nominated you for an internship, it means she saw something in you. I had nothing to do with it."

Tokage took a step back, as if she had been physically slapped. "But I- we- you-" She spluttered before trailing off and snatched the list back, looking at it with a dazed look on her face.

"Now, if you are quite finished, return to your seats." Vlad King commanded firmly, before gesturing a hand towards the door. "Today, we will be having a guest teacher to help us with the next section."

The door slid open to reveal Snipe and Nejire, the latter of whom was out of costume this time around.

"Hi, I'm Nejire Hado from Class 3-A, and I'm going to be your new Senpai!" She introduced herself in rapid fashion before bouncing over to Tetsutetsu, without giving anyone time to react. "Hey, what's up with your eyebrows? Why do they go all around your eyes?"

"Uh-" The grey-haired boy began, but Nejire had already moved on to Honenuki.

"Hey, isn't it hard to chew with no lips?" Then Shiozaki. "Aren't those uncomfortable to sleep in?" And Pony. "How do you put on a t-shirt?" Shishida. "Do you ever shed?" Kuroiro. "Does it get warm if you sit in the sun too long?" Fukidashi. "Do you think that if you learned another language, it would affect your Qui- wait, you know english, right? Nevermind." Tokage. "Do your teeth ever get stuck on food?" Bondo. "Hey, is that thing on top of your head rigid or floppy?"

The absolute machine gun barrage of questions left everyone on the back foot, looking at each other for what to do.

"Vlad King, um...?" Itsuka asked hesitantly, as Nejire rounded the class.

"The Third-Year curriculum includes the opportunity for students to assist in mentoring the younger years, in much the same way Pro-Heroes will often mentor interns and sidekicks." Vlad King explained. "Hado will be accompanying Snipe here today, and assisting in the following lesson."

"Hey, you didn't ask Tatsuma anything and she'd the weirdest looking one her-" Tetsutetsu asked, only to be elbowed hard by Itsuka.

"We've already met." I snorted. "Believe me, I was asked plenty of questions."

"Wait, you know one of the UA's Big Three?" Kaibara questioned.

"Well, not really, we just trained-"

"You've been training with one of the Big Three?!!!" Tokage burst out, jumping to her feet and slamming an open palm on her desk. "The top three best students at UA?!"

"A-hem."

Vlad King brought the entire class into silence simply by clearing his throat, even Nejire adopting a guilty-looking grin.

"Perhaps we might consider the actual topic of this lesson?" He said, to which everyone could only nod. "Snipe?"

"Right, we're here to talk about something mighty important, which I'm sure you've been waiting for." He began. "That is to say, today we'll be coming up with your Hero Names-"

Before the words were even out of his mouth the class exploded into a cry of jubilation that pierced through my ears like a lance.

"YYYYYEEEEAAAHHH!!!"

"Finally!"

"This is what we've been looking forward to!"

"Now's the time!"

Once the noise had died down a little, Snipe went on. "Now, y'all have fifteen minutes to get your suggestions ready to present to the class, and we'll see if you've got something workable."

The clamour picked up again, as people began loudly discussing their choices or possible options.

But as for me…

While the others had cheered, I had felt a cold chill run through my spine. There had, as far as I had given it any thought, only ever been one Hero Name I had considered.

Ryuju, the Tenth Dragon Hero.

Ever since that day twelve years ago, before I'd even had my Quirk, when Ryuko had explained she was going to be the ninth, it had been self-evident that I would be the tenth, following in her footsteps. But thinking about it now, after all that had happened, just thinking about it… it left a horribly sour taste in my mouth.

Ryuunosuke Tatsuma, aka Ryugo, the man who had kicked my mother out into the streets as a teenage mother, for refusing to become a Hero and pursuing her dreams instead. Who was responsible for Ryuko having to grow up in poverty.

Ryuo Tatsuma, aka Ryuhachi. The second-most spiteful man I had ever met, who only five days ago had tried to sabotage my chances of winning the Sports Festival, among many other things.

Taking the name Ryuju would mean associating myself with those two, proudly proclaiming for all the world that I was carrying on their legacy. The very thought made my stomach turn.

And yet, it wasn't their legacy alone. Ryuko had taken the name Ryukyu, the Ninth Dragon Hero. It was she who had inspired me to take up this path in the first place, and taught me everything I knew about being a Hero. She was my sister, and I loved her.

But it wasn't like that connection wasn't very prominently known, whichever Hero Name I picked. Yet, it could not be denied, the satisfaction of knowing it would make Ryuo fume would keep me warm at night. Though proving to him that I could make it without the family tradition would be gratifying as well. But that would mean acknowledging him as someone worth proving something to. And I could guess that he would simply rationalize it as me benefitting from Ryuko's fame. Then again, Ryuko had told me to try to move away from her shadow....

...I was going around in circles.

But if I didn't take Ryuju, what else was I supposed to do? I'd never even entertained alternatives, and we were expected to submit our picks within fifteen minutes…

"Hi! I've always wondered, how do you go to the toilet?"

I actually jumped a little as I heard the cheery voice of Nejire coming from right next to me, almost knocking my desk over.

"You look like you're having trouble coming up with ideas?" She told me, clasping her hands together and tilting her head.

"I, uh, do it into a hole." I muttered. "And no. Or yes. I don't know. I have an idea, but I don't know if I want to use it."

"What's it?"

"It's, um. Personal." I told her bluntly, but she didn't seem offended in the slightest. "I'd rather not say. I'm just… undecided. I feel like fifteen minutes is a little quick to make a big decision like that."

"Well, there is a way around that." Nejire said, poking her cheek. "Traditionally, if you aren't sure, you can just use your own name as a placeholder before figuring out a proper one. You just gotta be quick about it or it might stick. Like mine!"

"Wait, your Hero Name is just "Nejire Hado"?" I asked incredulously.

"Nejire-Chan, but yep!" She said cheerily. "But I like it anyway, so it's all good!"

I glanced at the clock. I was running out of time. There was no way I was going to figure this out in time, so...

-----

"Alright now, I reckon it's been long enough." Snipe announced. "Who wants to be the first?"

I certainly felt no desire to be the icebreaker, but it seemed like nobody was stepping up-

"Me!" Yoarashi said, marching up to the front with his whiteboard. "It's gotta be the Wind Hero, GALE FORCE!!!" He yelled, pumping his fist. "A passionate Hero who inspires others!"

"Now, that's a good one." Snipe nodded along. "You've got the right idea there."

Without the stigma of being the first, the others began to trickle along.

"Copy Hero: Phantom Thief." Monoma turned his card around with a flourish.

"Thief sounds kinda villainous..." Nejire pointed out. "Are you sure you wanna do that?"

"It's not about that, it's about the archetype, the aesthetic." He argued. "The gentleman with impeccable manner and charm, who rights all kinds of wrongs!"

"Uh, I guess it's fine..." Snipe conceded.

"Metallic Hero: Real Steel!"

"A little boring, but blunt and to the point."

"Fighting Hero: Battle Fist!"

"Cute and meaningful!" Nejire gushed.

"Soft Hero: Mudman."

"Not very inspirational, but you can go for a down-to-earth approach with that kind of theme."

"Christian Hero: Vine!"

"The epithet might be a little on the nose, but otherwise it's good."

"Construction Hero: Welder!"

"Um… Tsuburaba."

"Just your name? Well, be careful with that one."

"Beast Hero: Gevaudan!"

"A killer monster might usually be a bit of a tough sell on the public, but it's obscure enough."

"Darkness Hero: Vantablack."

"Thematic, eh? Approved."

"Martial Hero: Dragon Shroud!"

"Might cause a bit of confusion, but it's fine by me."

"Equine Hero: Arion!"

"Pulling from mythology, eh? We'll have to check if it's in use by someone else in Japan, but it should be fine."

"So cute…"

"Mushroom Hero: Shemage."

"Uhhh… I've got nothing." Snipe scratched his head.

"...It's a play on the word "shimeji"..."

"Alright, approved!"

"Drill Hero: Spiral."

"Short and simple!" Nejire cheered.

"Shifter Hero: Rule."

"Hmm, it's a little mundane, maybe..."

"No."

"Well, alright." Snipe raised his hands as Yui glared at him.

"Writing Hero: Comicman."

"Simple, but not bad."

"Glue Hero: Plamo."

"Hmmm, I can dig it."

"Reptile Hero: Tyrannosaurus!" Tokage announced.

"Taken." Snipe said apologetically. "Also, doesn't quite go along with the theme."

"Fine… uh, well, how about "Lizardy"?" She moped.

"That's fine in my books."

"Psychic Hero: Emily."

"...Eh? Well, I don't see an issue with it, so..."

And then it was just me, and I couldn't stall for any longer.

"Ryuuzaki." I muttered bluntly.

"Just your name? Well, if it's what you really want." Snipe said, while Nejire gave me a thumbs-up.

The rest of the class, though…

"Aren't you going to-"

"Hey, is something wrong?"

"But I thought-"

"Please, just… don't ask." I replied as I walked back to my seat. "I don't want to talk about it."

I needed to talk to Ryuko.

-----

"So, who are you thinking of going with, for the internship week?" Pony asked me as we walked out of the doors of the UA main building, heading towards the front gate.

I hmmm-ed seriously. "Well, it's not like I have a lot to choose from, but I have been thinking about it." I sighed, and braced myself. "I think I'm going to pick Endeavour."

Immediately, Yoarashi spat out the sandwich he'd been chewing on and made a choking noise, prompting Tetsutetsu to hammer him in the back.

And here it comes.

"You can't be serious!" He wheezed out as soon as he'd recovered. "Why him?"

"Why not?" I replied. "It's the option that makes the most sense. Gang Orca would be… a disaster. And I can't rely on my sister forever. Learning from Endeavour is an opportunity I can't pass up."

"Why? He's an awful hero." Yoarashi emphasized.

"I know you don't like him, but he didn't become the second-highest ranked Hero in the country by being incompetent." I retorted. "You can dislike him on a personal level, but you can't deny that he has the skills to back it up. The statistics speak for themselves. And he's the best there is at using fire-type Quirks."

"Have you ever even met Endeavour?" He threw back. "A Hero is supposed to be someone who uses their passion to inspire people with their passion, but all he's filled with is cold rage. You'll hate it there."

"You're talking past my argument." I replied, getting frustrated. "I'm not going there to enjoy myself, I'm going there to learn practical skills for being a Pro-Hero. Something even you can't deny he's good at."

"He'll be a terrible influence, regardless of how skilled he might-" Yoarashi began, only for me to interrupt.

"What, so you think a week with Endeavour is just going to flip me around, turn me into some cynical asshole?" I growled, feeling my claws scrape the floor as my anger grew. "Even if he is as bad as you say, you really think that little of me?"

Yoarashi looked taken aback, before gritting his teeth. "Fine. But don't tell me I didn't warn ya."

"Don't mind him." Itsuka said as Yoarashi stomped off. "That was out of line."

I just hmmm-ed. "So have you two decided yet?"

"No, I didn't get any nominations so I'll have to pick from the list of UA partners." Pony said. "I'll need to research them in-depth and figure out which would be the best."

"I only have the one..." Itsuka began. "So, um, I'll probably be working for Uwabami, though I haven't heard of her before..."

Well, now I felt like an asshole for being distraught about my own results.

-----

The Ryukyu Hero Agency was across the street from my home, a rather modest building for a Top-Ten Ranked Hero. I walked up to the front door, which clicked open as soon as the automatic sensor recognized me with a green wink of light. The first floor was as you would expect, an open lobby area- conveniently large enough for me to stand comfortably in -with a desk for the secretary, though empty since it was outside of business hours. To the left were a couple more offices and to the right there was a meeting room, but I walked past them all to the large pair of doors at the far side of the room, and took the elevator up.

The second floor was Ryuko's. As I stepped out of the elevator I was met by two doors, one leading to her "Official Office", as she called it, but knowing she wouldn't be there I took the other one to her apartment. It was quite a luxurious one- she'd bought the entire building from an old, rich couple and simply renovated parts of it.

The mahogany floor, the fancy tapestries, the expensive-looking vases, intricately carved wooden furniture (some of it Mom's handiwork), and lots of jewelry, it all made me feel out of place, even with the special carpet Ryuko had acquired to make sure my claws wouldn't scratch the floor. One misstep or twitch of my tail could cause damages in the millions of yen, and even though I knew Ryuko would forgive it the mere thought of it made me uncomfortable.

I didn't visit her very often.

"In here!" She yelled from her study and I plodded over, finding her studying some documents on her desk. "Hi 'Zaki!"

"Hi." I swallowed. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Always." She said, whirling around in her seat. "What's up?"

"Why…" I fidgeted in place for a moment, before speaking up. "Why did you choose the Hero Name Ryukyu?"

"...Oh." Ryuko looked taken aback by the question, obviously not what she'd been expecting. "Oh, yeah, that was today, right?"

I nodded mutely.

"Well… why did I choose that Hero Name? I'd always been fascinated by the idea of a lineage of Dragon Heroes. It seems like such a distant memory now, but when I was little… things weren't good for us. We were, well, we were very poor." She said, a bit of sadness seeping into her voice. "And I guess I'd always dreamed of being a part of something greater? You know how Mom never… quite approved of the Pro-Hero career, for either of us."

I nodded again, waiting for her to go on.

"I was just some kid who'd lucked out on a strong Quirk, now out in the big world. So I… wanted to have something to cling on to, if that makes sense? I know it seems weird now, but back then I had had no idea about what kind of people Ryuunosuke and Ryuo were. If I had known- well, there's no way to tell. But after the funeral, after what Ryuo said and did, I decided I would prove him wrong. I'd be a better Dragon Hero than he ever was." She finished, before speaking up again in a soft voice. "I suppose that's why you're here, right? Because of what he said in the Sports Festival."

"I don't give a crap about his opinion." I muttered. "I just… I don't know if I want to associate myself with the rest of the family tree, aside from you."

Ryuko made a sympathetic noise as she put a comforting hand on the side of my head. "That's a choice only you can make. I'd be happy to see you take the title of Ryuju, but I understand why you wouldn't want to."

"I just don't know." I made a frustrated noise.

"You are going to need to decide soon, or the public will do it for you."

"I know." I snapped, and there was a moment of silence between us.

"So, did you get your internship offers already?" Ryuko said, changing the subject.

"Y-yeah, that was actually another thing I wanted to talk about." I shook my head like a dog, clearing my thoughts, suddenly feeling nervous. "We got the lists today, and- you've already taught me so much, which I'm grateful for, but... um, so I've- I've been thinking of accepting an offer from Endeavour."

"Todoroki?" Ryuko blinked in surprise, before nodding. "Well, for all his faults he does have an eye for talent. I suppose it makes sense."

"Y-you're not disappointed I'd be turning down yours?"

"Why would I be?" She asked with a smile. "It was me who told you you should aim to get out of my shadow eventually. I sent the offer because I'd be glad to have you, but you are under no obligation to accept."

"Right." I took a breath. "Thanks. Yoarashi wasn't so understanding."

"Hmm, yeah, he wouldn't be, if his match with the younger Todoroki was any indication."

"I just don't know, he seems… kinda biased? But at the same time, nobody exactly praises Endeavour for his personality, and I've heard how much you complain about him..."

"I've worked with him on quite a few occasions, and met him on many more events, and while I might not like him as a person, he is a professional. He's… well, he has a dismissive attitude towards those he considers beneath his regard, but he specifically invited you, and he has to know you had other offers. He won't treat you badly."

"That's not very reassuring." I mumbled.

"I'm not going to make excuses for him as a person, because I don't even like him. But I think there is merit in your logic for picking him. I can't be your only teacher, and Endeavour is genuinely skilled at what he does. You can learn a lot from him, as long as you don't become him, and well, I know you're better than that." She gave me an encouraging smile. "And hey, if you get tired of the Todorokis, my door is always open."

"Thanks, again." I sighed. "I'll… keep that in mind."

Spoiler: A/N

Next Chapter will be featuring costume upgrades and therapy time with Gang Orca.

Also, I just wanted to say, to those of my readers who are up to date on the manga, this arc was all planned out way before Chapter 242 dropped. I have incorporated the new lore as best as I could, but where it could not be reconciled with my plans I went with what I had in mind, rather than scrap it and start from scratch.

I hope you understand.

 

[Blackout]

"I can't believe we're having another lesson with All-Might!" I watched as Pony gushed over the idea, bouncing around as we all made our way back towards our homeroom after lunch. "I know we've had him before, but still! All-Might! Come on, aren't you a little bit excited?

"Yeah. I'm just not showing it." I lied. In truth, I was pretty nervous about the idea of coming face to face with him again, knowing what I now did about him.

"Hmph. It was about time. 1-A's had twice as many lessons with All-Might already." Monoma grumbled. "Do they think we won't notice the favoritism?"

"Come off it Monoma, you're just imagining it." I replied.

"We all know you have it in for 1-A." Awase added.

"I'm serious!" Monoma said, sounding frustrated. "Everyone knows All-Might was at USJ for 1-A's visit, but did you see him anywhere when we went there?"

That was… actually a fair point, I never thought about it that way.

But what possible reason would All-Might have to favour one class over another?

The question continued to bother me as we returned to our classroom and took our seats to wait for All-Might- which luckily we did not have to wait for long.

"Good morning, my young students!" He exclaimed with a clap of his hands as he entered, and everyone sat just that little bit straighter in their chairs. "It is time for our next lesson! You have had the chance to test your costumes in Battle and Rescue Training, and then competed in the Sports Festival without them! You have had the opportunity to review your performance, and submit changes for the Support Department! So, today's focus will be on… Costume Upgrades! Take yours and meet me at Training Ground 8!"

He gestured towards the back wall of the class room, which once more opened to reveal a stack of boxes, numbered according to our seating order. However, as we each retrieved ours in an orderly fashion, it became apparent that this time there were also a number of unmarked boxes mixed amongst them.

"Hey, what about the rest of these?" Kaibara asked, gesturing towards the remaining boxes.

"To tell you the truth, I am not quite sure…" All-Might replied. "The delivery was made by the Support Department."

"Oh! Yes!" Tokage perked up. "I know what those are!"

She sprinted over to the stacked boxes, opening one and pulling out a folded piece of some kind of white material.

"Is that…"

"This," Tokage announced with a giant grin, "is dragonscale armor!"

She held it out for everyone to see: a sleeveless undershirt, coated in glimmering white scales.

All eyes turned instantly to me, and I sighed.

"Don't look at me, this was their idea." I pointed at Tokage and Yoarashi.

"We found out Tatsuma's been just throwing away all of her shed scales, but we thought of a way better use for it!" Tokage elaborated. "So we took a sample to the Support Department, to see what they thought of the idea. And it turns out they loved the stuff! In terms of mass and volume, dragonscale is more efficient than pretty much any armor material they had available."

"They've been hounding me for weeks to get some more." I grumbled.

"We had to wait until Tatsuma molted again to get enough for everyone, but now they're here!" Tokae gestured towards the boxes. "You don't have to use them, but after they thinned it out it's light enough to easily wear under your costume, and it's still stab- and bulletproof, even up to the higher calibers."

"I still think it's a little gross that you're wearing strips of my dead skin, but whatever floats your boat." I shrugged.

-----

"Observation: you are getting fat, meatbag." A robotic voice spoke out from behind my back. I turned my head around and, sure enough, the strap of my vest was slightly less loose than it used to be.

"I am not getting fat." I huffed indignantly at the robot UA had loaned for me.

"The evidence speaks for itself."

"I am a teenager. Do you know what teenagers do? They grow."

"A likely story."

"Pony, tell him I'm not getting fat."

"You're not getting fat." She assured me, rapping her knuckles against my side, making a solid-sounding noise. "See? Muscle."

"Hmph. If only inferior organic beings could acquire their full size upon creation." He grumbled, but pulled the strap tight and fastened it. "All done now, meatbag."

I rolled my shoulders, making sure it was in a comfortable position, and turned my head only to find Pony at the other side of the changing room, looking at the scale undershirt with a look of consternation.

"Were you serious when you said you thought these were gross?"

"I mean..." I stumbled for words. "It's a little weird, but I'm not really bothered by it. And, you know, you can never have too much armor."

I knew that better than anyone.

"Yeah, that makes sense." Pony smiled.

-----

I watched All-Might as we all piled out onto one of UA's fake cityscapes. It was insane enough that the Symbol of Peace himself was our teacher, but after figuring out the truth it was doubly unbelievable, that he would use his limited time teaching a bunch of high-schoolers. From the best Hero Academy in the nation, but still high-schoolers.

Why?

It didn't make sense to me, any way I put it.

"Now! Let us begin!" He spoke up again once we were formed into a semicircle around him, and I did my best to push those thoughts to the back of my mind. Focus.

"Before we start, I'd like for each of you to explain what new additions you've made to your costume. Understanding each other's capabilities will allow you to work better together, and you may be able to give each other ideas!" He said, before pointing at Tokage. "Start from the left, going clockwise!"

"Alright! I figured I needed a way to increase my attack power, so I added these!" She lifted her arms, showing off two small devices on her wrists, and several additional ones mounted on her waist and thighs. "Tasers! I've got ten of them, so when I split each piece of me can carry one."

"Remind me not to hug you." Kaibara made a face.

"You wish~"

"I trust that you have the trigger system set up in such a way as to not cause accidents?" All-Might asked.

"Yeah, I've got the activators here." She pointed at a small device on her wrist.

"Good!" He gave her a thumbs-up. "Now, moving on-"

"Right, so, um, I had initially decided against having a costume, because I didn't see the point in one given my, uh, situation. But during the Sports Festival I learned to appreciate how useful the ability to carry passengers is. So I requested the Support Department modify one of my vests." I turned around, showing my back to the others. "They added proper handles to hold on to, and underneath that zipper there's four full-on waist harnesses you can use to strap yourself in."

"So…" I heard Itsuka speak up. "Does this mean you can give proper rides now?"

"Yes. " I sighed, followed by cheers. "Anyway, I also had another upgrade-" I rotated my ears as far forward as I could, revealing two small devices at their base. "These are active noise cancellers, designed to protect my hearing against sonic attacks. They're not foolproof and they have to be turned on, but they should mitigate that weakness a little."

"I added in these!" Pony pointed at her back, visibly shaking from excitement. "I've got four slots for my horns to fit into, which effectively allows me to fly! Using more horns increases speed and maneuverability, but that means I can't use them for other stuff."

"I've also been working on something similar!" Yoarashi announced, tapping the new metal kneepads on his costume, each fitted with a pair of tubes. "When I push my wind through these, it should help stop me from spinning out."

"We've been working really hard for our flight licenses!" Pony exclaimed gleefully.

"...You two are going to need more layers." I told them. "It's cold up there."

"Excellent advice!" All-Might added. "However, don't go too far in the other direction either. During hero work, you will likely be spending the majority of your time on the ground, and overheating can be a serious problem!"

I bowed my head in concession, and then it was Itsuka's turn.

"I asked the Support Department for a defensive support item to help in close quarters, and this is what they came up with." She said, raising a thick hand sleeve wrapped around her right hand from wrist to elbow, made of a familiar white material. "It's made of Ryuuzaki's scales, so I should be able to use it to take hits."

"Won't it simply rip when you use your Quirk, though?"

"It's actually several layers, wrapped over one another." To demonstrate she activated her Quirk, and as her expanding hand pulled the sleeve taut, it simply unravelled itself. "It should work as a shield in a pinch." As she undid her Quirk, a hidden mechanism reeled it back in tight.

Next, Yui.

"New equipment." She stated mildly, showing off one of the pockets in her costume, packed with shrinked medical packs, shovels, rope, rations, water containers as well as various bricks and i-beams for projectiles.

And so on it went. Monoma had added watches to keep track of the time left on his borrowed Quirks. Honenuki now had a helmet to help with swimming in softened materials. Komori had water sprayers to help humidify the air to help her mushrooms grow. Tetsutetsu espoused that he didn't need any kind of support items. Kaibara had acquired spiral-patterned gloves to cover his fingers. Rin had added launchers into his wrists to boost the range and power of his scales. Kuroiro… had a sprayer filled with black paint. Huh.

"That's everyone!" All-Might announced with a thumbs-up. "Now comes the practical part of this lesson: integrating it into your combat style. For the rest of you, consider this an opportunity to improve upon your basics. And what better way to do that than… an ambush!"

"What?!"

"HELLO MEATBAGS." A thunderous, mechanical voice boomed, and an instant later the apartment building behind All-Might exploded outwards in a shower of rubble, as a zero-pointer robot emerged through it.

I acted on instinct before my mind could quite catch up and threw myself forward to shield the others, but even as I did so the wind picked up. I glanced back and saw Yoarashi with his hands raised towards the sky, and a cyclone of spiralling air caught the falling pieces of concrete and metal, suspending them in the air.

"Well done, young Yoarashi!" All-Might's laugh rang out from atop a nearby building- when had he had the time to get up there? "But can you deal with the rest?!"

Even as the rest of the class caught themselves up to what was happening, dozens upon dozens of robots, similar to the ones that I'd seen in the Obstacle Course, piled out of buildings and alleys, swarming towards us. The zero-pointer in front of us took a step that shook the ground, it's titanic fist casting a shadow over us as it descended.

Still in motion, I cast a look back at Itsuka, and a silent understanding passed between us.

"Shishida!" I shouted as I leapt into the air with a mighty beat of my wings. "Go for the legs!"

"Got it!"

Rather than meet the enormous fist head-on I rocketed past it, and instead drove my horn into the zero-pointer's elbow joint before digging my claws into its arm and twisting with every bit of strength my neck and shoulders were capable of. With a horribly groan of ripping metal, I severed the entire hand at the elbow and sent it flying, landing far away from the others with a heavy thump.

Then I felt the entire robot lurch beneath me as Shishida thundered into its ankles shoulder-first and, already overbalanced by the sudden loss of its arm, the zero-pointer began to tip over. I kicked myself off so as to not be caught under it, and with a titanic crash it fell to its side back into the building it had emerged from, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

From the air I could see Itsuka directing the others to fight the smaller robots, forming a rough semi-circular formation to protect each other's backs, while Honenuki created large quicksand zones that prevented the robots from surrounding them. Yoarashi had kicked into the air as well, sending shotgun-like blasts of rubble into the horde with his wind, while Tokage was a living whirlwind, each piece unerringly hitting a robot in it's vulnerable eye and electrocuting it.

But in the distance, there were yet more zero-pointers emerging: at least a dozen of them, and that was only the ones I could see.

I dove downwards where Itsuka was fighting, landing amidst the robots like a comet as I crushed a large three-pointer beneath my claws. A moment later my tail lashed out, smashing two one-pointers with a single swing.

"Thanks!" Itsuka shouted over the din of battle as she fought side by side with Tetsutetsu, using her new shield to parry a blow from a two-pointer before her return blow sent it flying. "They're way more aggressive than they used to be. We need to thin their numbers, somehow!"

"It gets worse, there's more of the big ones coming." I breathed out, even as I threw myself into the horde in a flurry of claws and snapping teeth, ripping through four robots in as many seconds. As I did so, a machine-gun burst of razor-sharp scales zipped overhead as Rin gave me covering fire, taking out several more robots that were trying to get at me from behind, and I sent the chinese exchange student a thankful nod.

"All-Might won't let anyone get hurt, but I assume if he has to save anyone we fail the scenario." Itsuka grit her teeth. "If those zero-pointers get here, there's no way we can deal with all of them at the same time."

"Take Kodai and Tsunotori!" Tetsutetsu shouted even as he jumped on the back of a three-pointer and caved in its head with repeated punches. "If that bastard Shinso had one good idea, it's that those two work well together! They can bombard the zero-pointers from your back."

"...That could work." I admitted with a bit of surprise.

"We're getting overwhelmed as it is." Itsuka grunted. "How are we supposed to hold out if we're down four fighters?"

"Then we'll just have to fight harder, dammit!" Tetsutetsu shouted, throwing himself into the fray. "You said it yourself, there's no way we'll make it if those zero-pointers all make it here!"

"...He's right." Itsuka bit out. "Take Yanagi as well, she can guide Yui's projectiles. Just take them out as fast as you can and get back here."

"You can count on me." I assured her and jumped onto a two-pointer, using my rear claws to rip apart its head while I kicked off of it and into the air.

I scanned over the battlefield, searching for the three of them. I saw Awase and Bondo working together, immobilizing large groups of robots for Fukidashi to drop massive kanji letters spelling out "Ka-Boom!" or "Crash!" onto them, while Komori worked to clog up joints with fungi for Shiozaki to rip apart with her vines. Kuroiro was popping in and out of shadows, harassing the robots whole Kaibara delivered the finishing blows by spinning his arms and fingers to turn them into drills. Finally, at the far end of the line, I saw Yanagi, Yui and Pony working together to bombard the incoming robots with small pieces of rubble that suddenly expanded right before impact, while two-meter long horns sheared through any stragglers that made it through.

I landed roughly once again, carving a path through the horde with my bulk and impaling a three-pointer with my horn.

"We need to go." I breathed out as I swung my head down, smashing the three-pointer apart against the ground. "Zero-pointers incoming. Get on my back."

"What?" Pony asked.

"There's more of the big robots on their way. We need to go stop them."

"Who's going to cover this part of-" Yanagi began, before a loud yell interrupted her.

"Excuse me, Tatsuma, if you wouldn't mind catching me?!!"

I turned around and saw Monoma sailing through the air, with Shishida at the other end of the formation with his hand extended into a throw. I spread out my wing, letting him slam into the membrane, the only soft part of my body.

"My thanks." Monoma said, tapping my wing with a finger as he dropped down. "I'll take over here while you go deal with the zero-pointers."

"Go ahead." I said as he turned into a yellow-scaled dragon in a burst of light, before turning towards the others. "We have to go."

Moments later we were airborne, Yanagi and Yui clipped onto my harness while Pony flew alongside us.

"Careful! Don't get too close to my wings!" I yelled at her over the wind.

"Got it!" Pony shouted back, as she floated a pair of horns for Yui to touch, rapidly growing to gigantic proportions.

"Go for those three on the right!" I instructed her. "We'll take care of the others!"

She saluted and sped off with her horns in tow, while I directed my attention towards the nearest robot. It was a gigantic thing of green-plated metal, towering over even the apartment buildings, with a blocky head dotted with red sensors.

"Here it comes!" I told Yanagi and Yui. "Aim for the eyes and head!"

"On it."

"Received."

Yui reached into her pocket and tossed a handful of tiny objects at the general direction of the zero-pointer, but soon after leaving her hand their flight path suddenly evened out, zooming straight at the robot as Yanagi's Quirk took hold.

It saw us coming, of course, but there wasn't anything it could actually do to stop us, flying hundreds of meters above it. It tried to raise a hand to block the projectiles but they simply looped around, slamming into its glowing eye sockets. An instant before impact, Yui pressed her hands together, and the objects suddenly magnified in size tenfold, retaining their former velocity yet striking with far greater mass.

The zero-pointers faceplate crumpled from the impacts, red glass shards falling down to the street as it suddenly began moving erratically, crashing into a building and slumping over.

"One down, eight more to go."

One after another, the zero-pointers fell under our pinpoint bombardment, unable to meaningfully stop us. When Yui ran out of ammo, I simply landed on top of one of the artificial city's many, many apartment buildings and used my claws to shred concrete and metal into pieces she could use.

I also followed Pony's progress from afar: using two horns to keep herself aloft, she could use the two enhanced by Yui to spear through a zero-pointer's head. It took a little longer for her, but eventually she seemed to hit something vital, and the robot collapsed just as ours had.

It couldn't have been more than ten minutes for the last of the zero-pointers to fall, but as we returned towards the rest of the class, I saw that they were still hard pressed.

There had to be over two hundred robots lying in pieces on the ground, but at least half that many were still assailing the others, engaged in a running battle across the streets as Itsuka led them, using Honenuki's quicksand zones to force them into choke points. Kuroiro had completely sprayed a three-pointer with black paint and was seemingly controlling it, smashing several of its compatriots before being overwhelmed and having to pop out. Yoarashi's winds swept over the robots, forcing them back, but I could tell that he was tired. Shishida and Monoma were wrecking balls of destruction, whilst Itsuka and Tetsutetsu fought back to back covering each other's weaknesses in defense and offense, respectively, but there were simply too many of the robots.

All-Might surveyed everything from above with his typical grin, and so I knew they were never in any actual danger. But even so, seeing my friends under attack like that...

"They need our help." Yanagi said, but I could tell that she was breathing heavily. Even Yui looked tired, and Pony seemed positively exhausted.

"Indiscriminate destruction, huh?" I mused aloud. "Hold on to your butts. I have an idea."

"What do you- AAAA!" Yanagi yelled out as I pulled my wings to my sides and dived like a hawk, closing my eyes.

"Tatsuma..."

"The ground is getting closer…"

"Tatsuma!"

Finally, I felt the heat in my chest spike, and spread out my wings to pull us out of the dive. A few seconds later, an incascadent stream of bright orange flames spilled out of my mouth, slamming into the robots with explosive force and ripping apart their ranks. Fire washed over the street and dozens upon dozens of robots disappeared into the hellish inferno. I strafed the entire length of the street, until finally the fire ran out, and I was left with a wracking cough and the feeling like I'd just vomited.

But when I turned around, I saw the trail of destruction I'd made. My attack had decimated the robot army, and the remaining stragglers were swiftly dealt with by the rest of the class. Though most of their attention seemed to be on gaping at the scene of utter devastation.

Those directly in the path of the flames had been melted, metal running like candle wax, and even those caught at the edge of the blast had suffered crippling damage, their frames warped and burnt black. Parts of the street were still on fire, and the asphalt had melted where my flames had touched it.

I landed next to the others, letting Yui and Yanagi jump down from my back. I wasn't really sure what to say.

To my eternal gratitude, I didn't have to, as Pony touched down next to me, bouncing up and down. "That was awesome!"

That seemed to break the spell, as everyone crowded around me, talking, bustling around, commenting, but… not in a bad way.

"Man, that was some attack. You've been holding out on us."

"Why couldn't you have done that sooner? We were up to our elbows in robots over here."

"Damn, I have to admit that was pretty."

However, a sudden hearty laugh drew all attention as a dark shape jumped from the rooftops.

"Excellent job, my young students!" All-Might announced as he landed, oblivious to the few glares directed his way for the sudden ambush scenario. "Now, head for the showers! Meet me in the classroom in half an hour, and we'll talk about what went right or wrong!"

-----

Days passed. The date of the internship week crawled ever closer.

But there was one more obstacle to go over, before then.

Musutafu Aquarium loomed before me, though not by nearly as much as it once had. It was a late Friday evening and the parking lot was packed to the brim with cars, families shuffling back and forth for a bit of relaxation after a long week. But instead of following the crowd to the main doors I circled around the building, finding myself faced with a heavy-duty cargo door.

I'd called the number Gang Orca had given me at the award ceremony, and set up a meeting with his secretary. I had been given instructions for this specific time and place, but nothing beyond that.

Just then, the huge doors opened with a discordant sound of metal grinding on metal, revealing a loading dock that was probably typically used by trucks. A man I didn't recognize in a white and blue uniform was standing on the pier, but he waved at me to come in so I assumed he was here for me. I hopped up onto the dock and, after I had pulled my tail through, the man hit a button on the wall and the doors began to shut.

"Not as glamorous as the regular entrance, but Boss explained the need for the exception." He said as he walked over to me and offered a hand, which I took awkwardly. "Name's Kimura, I'm one of Gang Orca's sidekicks. You might have seen me helping out at the pool every now and again."

"Uhhh…"

"It's alright, 's been years anyway. But you're pretty easy to remember." He waved it off, before turning around and leading the way further into the building. "Anyway, we should get going. Best not keep Boss waiting."

He led me through the hallways of the Aquarium, taking a circuitous path to avoid any doors I couldn't get through, and even then several of them were a tight fit. Our route intersected the public sections at several points, and I drew in quite a few odd looks- not to mention glares, as my appearance sent the occupants of the seal exhibit into hiding, leaving only splashes of water in their wake.

But my attention wasn't on them; I was reminiscing of old times. In a few months, it would be eight years since Ryuko and Dad took me here on my birthday, one of my fondest memories. To think that I spent that entire trip on Ryuko's shoulders. It should have been a funny thought, but all I felt was… sadness. But then again, that stopped being feasible even before, well, that.

I suppose that was just life.

We eventually arrived at wherever it was Kimura was taking me, which turned out to be a meeting room tucked away at the far end of the Aquarium building, at least according to the sign over the door.

"This is where we part ways, I gotta get back to work combing through police reports." He said with a wave, turning away. "Don't know what Boss has in store for you, but good luck anyway!"

"Thank you." I told him as I put one clawed finger on the doorknob and, with utmost concentration and as light of a touch as I could manage, opened it without damaging anything.

Inside, once I managed to squeeze through, was a simple meeting room as promised, fairly normal in its contents save for the fact that one side of the table had been cleared of chairs with a mat laid out on the floor in their stead, while the opposite side had only one, heavily reinforced chair. And sitting there…

"Hello again, Tatsuma."

"G-Gang Orca. Hello." I was proud that I only stumbled with my words slightly, after coming face to face with a humanoid killer whale.

"You came." He rumbled.

"...Yes?"

"Even though you turned down my internship offer." He said as he leaned forward, the creaking of the wood filling the room to my hyperaware ears while his eyes bore through me.

"You, uh, never said it was contingent on accepting the internship."

"Good." Gang Orca said as he leaned back once more, and suddenly I could breathe again. "It wasn't, and I would have been offended if you thought it was."

So it was a test.

"Everything in life is a test, in some fashion." He went on, as if he had read my mind. "You have worked on your nervousness and confidence. Good. But those are not the weaknesses we are here to cover today. Our aim will be working on your Thalassophobia."

"Right." Straight to the point.

"If at any point you feel like things are becoming too much for you to handle, you may leave at any time. If that happens, we will continue next time with a revised plan: it means a failure on my end, not yours."

I blinked.

"You are surprised." It was not a question, but a statement of fact.

"I… this, uh, isn't really what I was expecting. All of this. Like, I don't know, I had a feeling I'd walk into an office suspended over an aquarium tank where I'd be dunked into for shock exposure therapy with a bunch of sharks, or something."

"First of all, it would be inappropriate to knowingly expose you to your phobia without your consent. Second, what would your response to such a situation be?"

"...I'd panic."

"Exactly. You would be traumatized, the aquarium would be broken and worst of all, the animals would be hurt or even dead."

"That's fair." I replied, feeling a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry."

"You are not here as my student nor an intern, but a patient, and I take my responsibility in that regard very seriously." He said gruffly. "That means that whatever we talk about will be held in the utmost confidence. However, as a professional courtesy, I would in turn like to ask that you not spread details of these sessions, save with your regular therapist and family."

"Of course." I nodded. "It's the least I can do. I know… you don't have any obligation to do this. So, uh, thank you for this. Really."

"But I do have an obligation to help." He retorted. "I can. So I will. That is the essence of Heroism. What is the worth of a couple hours of my time compared to that?"

...There really wasn't anything I could say to that, was there?

"To return to what I was saying, this will require hard work from you. I trust that you will put forth your best effort, and follow my instructions to the letter." He went on, and I nodded seriously.

Again, it was the least that I could do.

"Good." He nodded. "This will take time, and you might never be entirely rid of your phobia. But our goal will be to reduce it to a manageable level. Let us begin."

He placed a recorder on the table, and turned it on. "First of all, I would like for you to explain in your own words how your phobia manifests and how it affects your daily life."

"Uh… well, obviously, it makes me uncomfortable with depictions of marine predators like sharks and, um, others." I couldn't look Gang Orca in the eye as I said that, even though rationally I knew he knew. "But, I can mostly work through that. I also have nightmares about being eaten and stuff, not every night but more than once a week. And, I avoid going into deep water. It makes me really uncomfortable." I spoke in clipped tones. "Unless I can tell with my own eyes there's nothing there. E-even if it's not connected to the ocean, I need to be able to see. I know that it's not rational, but…" I trailed off.

"It is a phobia. It is by its nature irrational." He assured me. "So, would you be afraid of a shark on land?"

"W-well, yeah." I mumbled, looking down at the floor. "But only because it reminds me of the idea of being in the water with one. They're not… inherently scary. A shark is less scary than being in the water, because a shark, or something else, could appear at any time. Because you don't know."

"Then, would it be accurate to say that you are more afraid of the unknown, than the deep water or sharks themselves?"

"T-That's part of it but not, um, everything. You can't see anything, you can't smell anything, you can't even really hear anything. But you also can't move. You're in the water, you feel so sluggish, and t-the attack could come from anywhere. And you couldn't do anything about it. On land, it feels like you can try to defend yourself. But in the water, I feel powerless, vulnerable. Even th- Even though I'm a dragon. I know. Everyone tells me that. There's no way a dragon should be afraid of sharks. My scales can w-wi-withstand bullets, what are teeth going to do? Hell, Ryuko ordered some tests made with a sample, and you'd need a rocket-propelled grenade to damage me. But I am afraid of them. It doesn't matter." I screwed my eyes shut, just letting it all out. "It makes me feel helpless."

"I see." Gang Orca said, grimly but not unkindly. "To summarize; you fear going into the water because it makes you feel like you could be attacked at any moment, and that you would be helpless if you were."

"Y-yeah." I replied, even though Gang Orca's words didn't sound like a question.

"Hmm. You were right not to accept my internship offer." He said after a moment.

"Then why offer it in the first place?" I asked.

"I left the decision to you." He replied. "If you thought you were ready, I would have accepted your judgement."

Another test, then.

"And if I'd been wrong?"

"If you were unable to fulfill your expected duties as an intern, I would have sent you back to UA."

Blunt, but honest.

"Now that we've established what the issue is, let us move on to addressing it." He went on without missing a beat. "And to start us off-" he reached down and placed a stack of books on the table with a hefty thud. "-Homework. I have gathered some choice material on marine life for you to read over: it is harder to fear that which is familiar to you."

"I know how unlikely a shark attack actually is, and how docile most of them really are. It doesn't help."

"I'm sure you do, and I'm not here to lecture you on the topic. This is about familiarization and therapy through exposure. First, you will read about them. Then you will see images and videos of them. After that, live sharks in an aquarium. Then going into an adjacent tank, still separated by a glass wall. And finally, one day you might be ready to go swim with a shark."

...The idea sent shivers down my spine.

"That is still far in the future. We will not move to that stage until you are ready." Gang Orca said, though it didn't reassure me all that much. "It will be a tedious and slow process, and it will be up to you to put in the necessary work. But the end result will be worth it."

I sighed. "Of course. I'll do it."

"Good. Now, that is only one aspect that we will be working on." He said as he rose from his chair and began walking towards the door. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"You will see."

I squeezed my way out of the meeting room once more, following Gang Orca as he took us deeper into the building, to the section that served as the headquarters of his Hero Agency. There were dozens of sidekicks and employees bustling around, going about their business, greeting Gang Orca and giving me a nod as we walked by. It was quite a different impression compared to Ryuko, who ran her Agency primarily by herself.

As we were passing through, however, at one intersection I spotted in passing a flight of transparent stairs. And there, on the top…

"You do have an office suspended over an aquarium tank." I gaped.

"I never said I didn't." He replied.

While I was still trying to come to grips with that, Gang Orca led me further into the complex, until we finally came across a door with the words "Training Room 3" displayed above it.

"In here."

He opened the door and flicked on the lights, revealing a long hallway perhaps a little over a hundred meters long, ending in a dead end with a large green button mounted on the wall. Curiously, all along the walls of the hallway starting from about ten meters into it until just before the far end I could see seams, as if there were hidden panels lining the path, and what looked like a control panel with several buttons and sliders.

"This is the Obstacle Course." Gang Orca said after I awkwardly folded myself through the door. "It is used by myself and my sidekicks, but it will suffice for you as well."

I nodded.

He stepped up to the control panel and fiddled with the settings for a moment. Then, with a grinding sound, the panels I'd spotted along the walls suddenly extended outwards, metal pillars of various sizes and shapes pushing into the hallway, forming what I guessed to be the titular obstacle course. From the looks of things, it would be close, but there was just enough room for me to get through. "Your objective is to reach the opposite side and press the button as fast as you can, without touching anything but the floor."

"Alright." I still wasn't quite sure how this related to my phobia, but…

I stepped forward, but Gang Orca raised a hand. "Not quite yet. There are two more rules to go: you will do it with your eyes closed, and I will reset the course to a new, random configuration once you begin."

I eyed him dubiously. "...There's no way I'd be able to do that."

"Isn't there?" He asked pointedly. "Allow me to demonstrate."

While I watched, he changed a few of the settings, closed his eyes and hit the initiate button. Immediately the panels slid into another pattern, creating a far more narrow and erratic path. And yet, Gang Orca strode into the hallway, with the same confidence and purpose he always had.

Then, just before he hit the first barrier, I heard it. A high-pitched snap-click that pierced my ears.

And as it happened, he casually ducked underneath the pillar, even though he shouldn't have had any way of knowing it was there.

I felt my jaw hang open slightly as I realized what he was doing. The snapping sound continued as he advanced into the hallway at a steady pace, stepping aside to dodge another pillar here, jumping over another there, his eyes remaining closed all the while. As the path narrowed towards the end he soon had to contort his body into a precise pose to fit through without hitting anything, but he brushed through the challenge effortlessly. If I couldn't see his closed eyes...

It couldn't have taken him more than a minute to reach the far end and press his palm on the green button. Immediately the pillars slid back into the walls, and a little theme played out from a hidden speaker.

He turned around and opened his eyes, walking back through the hallway. "Do you see what I mean? Or more accurately, hear?"

"...Yes." I admitted. "But there's just one problem there: I can't echolocate."

"Can't you?" He challenged. "Or do you think that you can't?"

"I'm not a whale, or a bat."

"True. But you do not need to. Did you know that it is possible for humans to learn to echolocate?"

"...No?" I replied, suddenly feeling a tingle in my spine.

"It was first discovered by the blind community even before the emergence of Quirks, but it has been proven that anyone is capable of it. The only thing stopping them is the time and effort required to train such a skill, and the lack of a need. And your hearing is immensely more sensitive and accurate than that of a Quirkless human- if they can achieve it, it should be easy for you. Can you guess how this relates to your situation, now?"

"...I can see underwater." I breathed out.

"Precisely." Gang Orca smiled, and I couldn't quite suppress my flinch. "When you have mastered echolocation, you will be able to navigate in water no matter how dark and murky, and know for a certain what is or isn't in there with you. It might not on it's own solve the problem, but taking care of the sensory deprivation angle should go a long way towards it."

"Right. That makes sense." I said. "But how do I do it?"

"That is what I will teach you. We will begin with the most important part: the click. Try for a sharp "ch" to start with."

I was a little taken aback, but complied. Learning how to vocalize normal sounds as a dragon had been a task and a half, but I should be able to-

"Sharper."

...

"Now higher."

I raised the pitch of the clicks, feeling frustrated, and looked at Gang Orca.

"Good, now close your eyes and hold out your forelimb in front of your head. Keep clicking."

I felt silly doing it, but followed his instructions.

"Now, slowly bring it closer towards your mouth." Gang Orca went on. "What do you notice?"

"It's… it's louder."

"Congratulations, you've accomplished the crudest form of echolocation." He said in a dry tone. "You are using the difference in the strength of the returning sound waves to gauge distance to an object."

"It's… that simple?"

"Of course not. That was the easy part. Now, unfurl your wing, and turn your head to face it. Focus on the echo. Can you feel it?"

"...Yes."

"Rotate your wing so that it is at an oblique angle to your head."

"It changes."

"That is how you determine the facing of an object, from the difference in the return." Gang Orca stepped up to the control panel once more. "Now, turn to face the obstacle course."

I did so, and heard the sound of metallic grinding again.

"Your ears are twitching." I heard Gang Orca state. "You can tell how far the pillar is."

"...Twenty meters." I admitted.

"Your enhanced hearing will be useful for this, but do not allow it to distract you. You already have experience gauging distances by sound, but only if the object is emitting it. The point of echolocation is to emit that sound yourself and detect the object by what it reflects."

I nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Now, for the next part, you will be trying to determine the dimensions of the pillar…"

-----

Hours later, I stood with my eyes closed, trying to focus. I could hear noises- machinery humming in the walls, people moving out in the distance, my own heartbeat, Gang Orca's breathing behind me-

"Begin."

I did my best to tune out the distractions and focus on the task at hand.

Click.

The sharp noise cut through the clutter like a knife, reflecting off of objects and bouncing back at me. It was stronger from my sides, as well as below and above me. That was the ceiling, the floor, and the walls. Which meant that my objective was somewhere in front of me.

Click.

Once more the sound bounced back from all around me, but I focused on the fainter return in front of me- There! With utmost concentration, I could make out a small patch where the return was stronger than it was around it. I craned my neck to the right.

Click.

I craned my neck to the left.

Click.

The patch moved, in relation to my head. Which meant that I now had a very rough idea of how far it was from me.

I took a hesitant step forward. It felt instinctively wrong to walk blind- to give up control to a shaky, unproven new sense. For years, I'd taught myself to always know exactly where I was stepping.

But I powered through my discomfort, and took another step.

Click.

The patch was there, stronger than before. I kept walking and clicking, moving my head to each side as I did so, constantly gauging my distance to it. With each new click my perception of the obstacle grew clearer and clearer, until I had a very basic idea of it's dimensions and shape. The gap between it and the left wall was too small for me, so I went right and slowly walked past the obstacle, clicking every few seconds to make sure. Once I was sure I was past the obstacle I turned my head forward and kept clicking, until I reached the other end of the hallway. Feeling around for the button I pressed it, and a happy jingle rang out from somewhere in the ceiling.

I opened my eyes, and turned around to look at Gang Orca standing on the other end of the obstacle course. Between us, there was a single metallic pillar, standing roughly in the midpoint of the hallway.

A metallic pillar I'd just maneuvered past without ever seeing it.

"Well done." Gang Orca said as I walked back to him. "You have grasped the basics of echolocation. But that was merely a single obstacle."

"And in the air, not underwater." I replied.

"True. Much work remains to be done. But now, you will be able to practice and hone the process without my supervision. Once you have mastered it, we will move to practicing in a water tank."

"Alright. What now, then?"

"Our allotted three hours have been used up."

I blinked. It had been that long?

"As a student I have no doubt you will be busy, but you will find the time to work on echolocation. It can be done anywhere, at any time. If you are able to, try keeping track of multiple objects or echolocating with your eyes open."

"Right."

"Now before we leave things off, I have one last question. I didn't ask it earlier because I could infer the answer, but I wanted to hear it from you before we leave things off." Gang Orca said, leaning forward. "In your nightmares, are you a human, or a dragon?"

"H-human."

"Are you ever a dragon?"

"N-no."

"And how does that make you feel?"

"...Helpless. P-powerless. Vulnerable."

He nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer. "Something to think about, perhaps."

I could only nod in return.

"I do believe we are done here for today. Pick up the material I gave you from the meeting room, complete the assignments given to you, and schedule the next session with my secretary when able."

Spoiler: A/N

Next time, Endeavour.

 

[Blackout]

Sunday dinner in the Tatsuma family was something of an awkward affair. Mainly but not exclusively due to the fact that one participant was the size of an elephant, and had to eat from a bucket. The kitchen furniture had been arranged so that I could comfortably sit down next to the table, with my rear and tail in the living room.

Oh, and did I mention that when a four-ton dragon is devouring a bucketful of meat and bones, it's loud?

I knew for a fact Mom didn't enjoy the audible crunching noises that made conversation awkward if not impossible, after years of doing her best to raise her children with some tableside manners. I felt guilty, of course, but… what could I possibly do about it? Except spontaneously regaining my ability to turn back to human, of course.

...

So, we ate without saying a word, as I hurried to finish my meal as fast as I could. Once the last of the meat had disappeared down my gullet, the awkward atmosphere of the situation began to relax. You could almost pretend like it was normal, if you squint. Ignore the elephant in the room, if you will.

I am funny.

Slowly, conversation began to filter back in. Dad mentioned a cute dog he'd treated for an infection at work today, and a new movie he'd be going out to watch with his colleagues. I talked about how school was going, and even Mom explained how she was almost finished with a large special order of carvings she'd been commissioned for.

Just… normal, everyday stuff.

It was nice.

"So, Ryuuzaki, have you got everything packed away for your internship?" Dad asked as he turned towards me.

"Yeah." I said, scratching my side. "I mean, it's not like there's a lot I need to carry with me, aside from my costume. UA worked out the special accommodations with the Agency ahead of time."

He snorted. "Don't count on it. Talk is cheap."

"It's the Number Two Hero Agency in the nation, if anyone's got the resources to do it it's them."

There was a sound of wood clattering against wood, and I turned my head around to see Mom had dropped her chopsticks.

"Endeavour." She repeated slowly. "You're interning with Endeavour?"

"Yes?"I swear to god, if I had eyebrows they would have been through the roof.

"No. You aren't." She stated. "I forbid it."

"What?!" I blinked, taken aback. "The internships start tomorrow!"

"Why haven't you brought up that you're interning with Endeavour until now?"

"I talked about it with Ryuko-"

"Oh sure, talk about it with your sister but not your parents."

"I have." I said, raising my voice. "I talked about it with Ryuko, and I've brought it up multiple times the last few weeks, you're just constantly working or not paying attention."

"Well this is the first I've heard of it." She snapped, with her best 'don't talk back to me'-face.

"Well it's not like you ever cared all that much about my hero studies anyway." I muttered before I could stop myself.

"Ryuuzaki." Dad admonished as he turned to Mom, who looked shocked. "Ryutsuki, dear, let's all be calm and reasonable about this. Why do you feel so strongly about her interning with Endeavour?"

"...I don't like it." She turned her head, refusing to elaborate.

"Well, I can't change your mind on that. But don't you think that it's unreasonable to expect Ryuuzaki to try to change her Internship at the last minute without even giving a reason?"

"She could intern with Ryuko. I'm sure she'd have no trouble with it." She spoke in a clipped tone.

"I'm sure she would, but do you want me to call the Number Two Hero in Japan and tell him I'm not coming, cancel all preparations because you said so?" I threw out, feeling resentful and frustrated.

"..."

"If you won't just tell us wha-"

"Fine." Mom snapped, interrupting Dad. "Suit yourselves."

She snatched up her chopsticks and returned to her meal in a resentful huff, leaving me to look at Dad with bewilderment in my eyes.

-----

"Do you all have your phones, costumes and train tickets?" Vlad King's deep voice carried over the bustle and noise of the train station. We were gathered around him in a semicircle, carrying various bags and other required items for our internship week. A sense of nervous excitement was in the air.

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"Got it."

"Good." He folded his arms. "Today marks the beginning of your first true contact with the reality and daily life of being a Pro-Hero. Obey your hosts, but do not forget that you are providing them a service in turn. Do not forget your own value. And in all cases, do UA proud. Plus Ultra!"

"Plus Ultra!"

We scattered, each heading for our own destinations. I was about to begin walking towards the exit, when I heard a voice speak out from behind me.

"Tatsuma."

I turned my head around to see Shoto Todoroki standing behind me, holding his own briefcase with one hand. His mismatched eyes looked up at me, a look of complete dispassion on his features. Behind him, some distance away, I could see 1-A similarly dispersing towards outbound trains.

"Yes?"

"I was ordered by my father to accompany you to the Endeavour Hero Agency's headquarters." Even his voice was carefully neutral, giving away nothing.

"Um, thank you, but I know the way-"

"Regardless, it was his order." He interrupted me, before turning to walk towards the train platforms. "Come."

I sighed, but followed, catching up to him with a couple of rapid strides. "I can't fit into a train. I am going to have to walk there."

Todoroki paused, the tiniest pursing of his lips betraying his annoyance as he reversed his course towards the exits.

"Then we walk."

I followed him out through the main doors of the train station and into the streets, struggling to keep up with him in the crowd without knocking into anyone.

"So, are you interning with Endeavour as well?" I asked him after a few moments. It had never occurred to me before now, but it seemed so obvious in hindsight.

"Yes." He bit out, not sounding too pleased, and that was that.

The remainder of the trip was awkward, to say the least. Todoroki marched on in sullen silence, and I didn't see a point in trying to strike up a conversation when he clearly had zero interest in it.

Thankfully the distance was relatively short, and in less than an hour we had reached Musutafu city center. If I thought I drew in stares then Todoroki was in another category altogether, and it felt almost like every other person stopped to gawk at us, much to his obviously mounting displeasure.

Finally, we pushed through the last crowd, and found Endeavour Hero Agency towering before us. It was a massive building, an entire skyscraper devoted solely and exclusively to the Number Two Hero and his staff.

Todoroki strode up to the entrance, a pair of massive wooden doors no less than eight meters tall, with a stylized flaming "E" mounted above them. An automated security system blinked a couple of times as it scanned us before turning green, and the doors clicked open of their own accord.

The inside of the building was a hive of activity. The first floor was a lobby of enormous proportions, clearly designed to overawe visitors. Costumed sidekicks and other staff were passing to and from the rows of elevators, and the intercom was crackling with announcements.

"Squad 3 prepare for departure in T-minus four minutes..."

"We have a situation in Mygeeto Hotel, who's the closest to respond?"

"Where's Burnin'? I've got an urgent message for-"

While I struggled with the sensory overload Todoroki kept going, ignoring greetings and well-wishes as he marched past the rows of secretary desks towards the largest of the elevators, at the far end of the building.

I, on the other hand, wasn't able to make such a good time through the busy lobby, slowly navigating my bulk through the crowd while trying to avoid bumping into anyone. Just as I thought I was in the clear I felt something hit my tail followed by a yell and a crash. I whipped my head around to see a young-looking Sidekick sprawled on the floor with a box of papers similarly spilled everywhere.

"Watch where you're going ya damn lumphead!" He yelled as he jumped to his feet, a tall man with spiky black hair and a pair of heavy gauntlets on his hands. "You tryin' to cause trouble, new guy?!"

"Hey now, that's Endeavour's new intern, we don't want to keep her." A man wrapped in bandages put a hand on the other man's shoulder, before looking up at me. "Move along now, Shoto's waiting."

"Endeavour's training someone who isn't his kid?" I heard the man I'd tripped mumble behind me. "Don't see that every day..."

Todoroki waited for me with a silent look of judgement on his features, to which I responded with as blank of a face as I could muster. The doors shut as soon as I pulled my tail through, the destination already keyed in, and soon enough we were rocketing towards the top level.

I was glad to be out of there, as the doors opened into a small waiting room decorated with couches and a sign telling visitors to wait to be called in, but Todoroki strode past it and pulled the immense mahogany door open, glancing behind himself to make sure I was following.

I felt immensely awkward as I stepped into what had to be Endeavour's office, a huge room with windows overlooking the city taking up an entire wall. A single desk dominated the room, as did its occupant.

Endeavour. On anyone else the whole "The upper half of my body is permanently on fire" shtick would have looked silly or extravagant, but he had the sheer presence to make it work. His icy-blue eyes glared right through us as we approached, and I recalled back to Yoarashi's many, many rants about the man in front of me. The look in them was the furthest thing from warm.

There was another man standing before him, clad in a heavy, padded grey costume, who also turned to look at our interruption. He was probably in his early twenties, quite average-looking with short-cut brown hair and a pair of high-tech goggles pulled onto his forehead. Another one of the sidekicks, I guessed.

"Shoto." Endeavour acknowledged his son, before turning to look at me. "Tatsuma. It is good to see you made the right choice."

"Thank you. I was, um, honoured."

Endeavour nodded his head, but didn't conceal the curl of his lips in distaste at the slight stutter in my voice.

"You will be staying with us for the rest of the week: all necessary accommodations have been taken care of." He said, before leaning forward and placing his hands on the table, causing a slight creak. "While here, everything you say and do acts as a reflection upon the Agency and myself. While at UA you may have gotten used to a more relaxed atmosphere, but here we expect discipline, rigour, and excellence in all aspects. You will conduct yourself appropriately."

I did my best to not allow my nerves to betray me, and nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Strikethrough here will show around and introduce you to the Agency." He indicated the other man, who'd been standing quietly by his side. "Shoto, you will remain here. We are going to have a discussion"

His tone left no room for argument, and so I turned towards the man identified as "Strikethrough".

"Come on then, let's go." He said as he began walking towards the door, gesturing for me to follow.

"Name's Rokuro Abe, aka Strikethrough." He said, sticking out a hand at me as we entered the lift, his demeanour visibly relaxing upon leaving the office. "Welcome to Endeavour Hero Agency, on behalf of us Sidekicks. We don't often get to see interns 'round here."

"I think I encountered some of your fellows downstairs. Big guy with gauntlets, tripped on my tail and yelled at me."

"Yeah, that's Sparkfist for ya. Quick to anger, quick to cool. I know you're probably not gonna believe me, but he's actually a pretty nice fellow, once you get to know him." He rubbed the back of his head. "I hope him and Endeavour haven't totally ruined your impression of the place, we're not that bad."

"Endeavour did seem… standoffish." I ventured.

"He's like that with everyone." He shrugged. "You're Ryukyu's sister, right? I saw your performance at the Festival- those were some sick moves, by the way. People are still talking about that Seismic Toss."

"Thank you." I mumbled, a little embarrassed. "And yeah, I am."

He nodded. "You're probably more used to dealing with your sister, but let me tell you, Endeavour ain't like her- let's just say none of us are here for his glowing personality."

"..."

"Look, I ain't trying to scare you away or anything, just telling you to manage your expectations. So long as you don't expect him to be your pal, you'll be fine. With Endeavour, it's best to think of it as a business relationship, because that's what it is. You gotta figure out what he's getting from you and what you're getting from him, and so long as both of you are getting what you want he can be a great boss."

That seemed awfully cynical, but I didn't voice my thoughts aloud.

"That's the thing, I don't really know what he wants from me." I said instead.

"He probably thinks you've got potential, kid. And with your Quirk, he probably ain't wrong. I know I'd be real glad to have a dragon backing me up when I go up against a villain." He said, as the elevator finally hit ground level. "Anyways, we're here."

We stepped back out into the busy lobby, still bustling with people back and forth. I was careful to watch my tail as we walked across the room, while Strikethrough kept talking.

"This is the lobby, and yeah, it's pretty much always like this. We've got over thirty Sidekicks working here at the Agency, and there's a constant rotation of at least one squad out on patrol and one responding to calls or standing in readiness, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. You don't seem the type anyway, but don't piss off the secretaries or dispatchers just 'cause they ain't Pro-Heroes: they can make your life hell, and the good ones, good enough to run this whole machine without any snags, are worth their weight in gold and they know it."

"Right." I nodded along as he led us to another wing of the building, adorned with more equipment than three gyms put together.

"This is the training areas, they're freely available to all Sidekicks to use, but since you're here as an intern Endeavour is probably going to set your training schedule."

"Do you know anything about what my schedule is going to be like?" It wasn't like I was worried- well, that was a lie, I was, but it was more that I disliked not knowing what was to come.

"Well, he told me to bring you to his private training area in… two hours or so. Beyond that, well, I wouldn't want to speak for him, but you'll probably get brought along to patrol. At least with us sidekicks, Endeavour doesn't usually take new blood with him. But then again he doesn't usually take in interns, so who knows?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Let's finish the tour, and then grab something to eat."

He took me around the Agency, showing me its various wings. There were entire command centers of dispatchers, working around the clock to coordinate various teams out on the field. A wing with entire living quarters available for employees, including a room set aside for me. Then we moved on to the PR department. Merchandise department. Medical department. Administrative department.

It was what I'd seen at Ryuko's Agency, just… multiplied. A job that was handled by a single person there was the responsibility of an entire department of over two dozen people here. I was slowly starting to appreciate the scale of the Endeavour Agency, and maybe a part of how he had managed to climb to the very top. He went all-in on absolutely everything.

Even the mess hall was of top-notch quality, as evidenced by the veritable mountain of meat waiting for me, all of it cooked and seasoned to gourmet standards. Even as I got to work on eating it, I had to wonder how much it had cost, and to question once again why Endeavour had gone through all of this trouble to get me here. 'Endeavour doesn't often take on interns', that was what I had been told over and over.

Yet, for some reason, he'd chosen me, out of all of the contestants at the Festival. Why? Had I really impressed him that much? That answer didn't quite feel right, and yet it was the only one I had.

Maybe… that was just my own demons talking. I should just accept it for what it was, before I twisted myself into knots and sabotaged my own progress.

"So, Did ya have any questions before we head back to Endeavour?" Strikethrough asked he finished his own cup of noodles, shaking me out of my thoughts.

"Well, I did have one." I began, a little hesitantly. "You don't have to answer, but… earlier, you said that nobody is here for his personality. Can I ask… why are you here? If that makes sense?"

"No, no, I get what you mean." He waved off my concern. "Well, can I turn that around on you? Why are you here?"

"Well, I was hoping to learn some new skills." I mumbled. "He is known for being pretty skilled."

Strikethrough snapped his fingers. "That's exactly it. Endeavour's the best in the business. Well, second best, but All Might's not taking Sidekicks. If you want to get stuff done, nobody's solving more cases or fighting more villains than Endeavour, and in terms of experience, publicity and salary, you're not going to find a better place for that. Even if you don't stick around forever, a couple of years here can set you up for your own Hero Agency. And for me, well- My Quirk's called Scan, and it lets me see through solid objects, analyze their structure and composition. I ain't a fighter, and certainly not someone with prospects of going solo. But here, working with some of the best sidekicks in the nation, I can make a difference I couldn't do alone."

-----

I entered the training room Strikethrough had directed me to before leaving, with no small amount of trepidation. It was a simple square-shaped room, maybe a hundred meters across and around five meters tall. The floor was featureless metal panels, while the ceiling was adorned with orderly rows of lamps projecting white, clinical light down upon the room's singular occupant.

Endeavour stood with his arms folded at the center of the room, his flames flickering ever so slightly in the airflow as the door clicked shut behind me.

"This marks the beginning of your real training. You have potential, but it is being wasted." He spoke as he eyed me up and down. "Over the next five days we will see whether you are up to the task of remedying that."

I nodded warily, unsure what else to do.

"First, I wish to take a measure of your abilities first-hand. Come at me, with any means within your disposal."

I eyed him for a few heartbeats, hesitating, before accelerating into a charge, clawed feet thundering on the metal floor. I threw myself forward and swiped a paw at him, but in one fluid motion he ducked underneath the massive limb. I swung my head sideways but the angle wasn't good, and Endeavour was able to simply step back and avoid the horn, a cold look of dispassion on his features. I lunged at him but he went under my armpit, evading my wing and tail with precise, measured movements.

"Slow."

He punched the air and a gout of flame washed over me, harmless as a breeze. I took a little bit of pride in the slight rise of his eyebrow. I charged him again, but when he avoided my claws I used the momentum to spin my body around and swing my tail at him. At that range, he had no room to dodge.

But before it could connect, a spear of fire slammed into the metal beneath my right hind foot, melting it instantly and causing me to lose my footing. With my leg sunk half meter into molten steel, I stumbled and tripped, landing on the floor with a crash. He was on me in an instant, and a flame-covered fist jabbed into my throat with immense force, right where my jaw connected to my neck. He had to be using his fire to enhance his strength somehow, because the blow left me wheezing and gasping for air.

"Your durability is impressive, but you rely on it." He stated coldly as he stepped away, arms folded. "You have yet to use your greatest weapon. Why?"

I grunted, drawing a deep breath. I tapped into that well of resentment and frustration within me, and felt the heat ignite within me, gathering in my chest and travelling up my throat. A few seconds later a wide cone of fire poured out of my mouth and at him, warping the metal floor with its heat. At the last second he clapped his hands together and the stream of flames parted either side of him.

"Your flames have power, but no control whatsoever. In a real combat situation against a villain, it would be practically useless."

"That's… why I don't use it."

"Hm. It is triggered by emotion?"

"Yes. Anger, mostly."

"Unfortunate." He stated coldly. "You can ignite the fire, but instead of controlling it you allow it to control you. An unrestrained eruption like that might be useful for a villain, but if you meant to become a Hero it is worse than useless."

I said nothing. While it stung, everything he'd said was the truth. I hadn't been able to make any progress by myself, and that was why I was here. To learn.

"Has nobody taught you how to breathe?"

"..."

"Hn. You have no idea what I'm talking about."

"...No?"

I got the distinct impression of disappointment from him as he looked at me, before turning his head and shouting. "Burnin'!!!"

A few moments later the door to the sparring chamber was thrown open as a young woman marched in, wearing a grey military-issue jacket and a domino mask, though her most distinguishing feature had to be her bright, flame-like hair. This was Burnin', Endeavour's top sidekick and quite famous in her own right.

"Sir!" She said, saluting Endeavour with a grin on her face. "What do you need?!"

"You will teach Tatsuma here to breathe properly, then bring her back to me." He instructed her. "There is no point to us continuing here, until then."

Her grin wavered. "But I have other assignm-"

"Others will take care of them." He shut her down, walking up to the door without looking back. "This is important."

As the door clicked shut behind him Burnin' turned her attention to me, looking me up and down. She didn't appear impressed. "Fine. Let's get this over with, then. I've got places to be."

-----

"No, focus!" She jabbed a finger at my snout. "Even, slow breaths! Control it! How many times do I have to tell you this?!"

"I'm trying." I bit out. It would be easier if she didn't constantly disrupt me.

"Not hard enough!" She folded her arms, surveying my progress. Such as it was. "You are the slowest person I've ever taught. Most would have picked up on this long ago."

Yeah, I fucking know. You've told me that already.

At least that's what I wanted to say, but I held my peace. I wasn't here to enjoy myself, I was here to learn. So I bit my tongue and went on in frustrated silence.

We had been at it for hours on end, alternating between running laps around the room and undergoing various breathing exercises, while Burnin' critiqued and needled my every move.

I mean, I could see the point of the training, once it had been explained to me: learning to control your breathing even under pressure is the first step in learning to control fire breath. But that didn't mean I liked being shouted at. Burnin' seemed to subscribe to the 'yell at them until they sort themselves out' school of teaching.

Finally, she pinched her nose and raised her hand, indicating for me to stop. "That's enough. It's already past nine in the evening, and Endeavour's left a while ago now. Your progress is nowhere near where it should be, but it'll have to do for now." Burnin' said as she turned to leave, sounding frustrated. "Get some sleep, because we're continuing tomorrow."

I sighed.

I lumbered over to the door after her, and found my way to the quarters Strikethrough had shown me. They weren't anything luxurious, just a simple, large room with some decorations on the walls and a large mat for me to lay down on. But the view out of the window was nice, and they had turned the thermostat up to the max.

It didn't take long for me to drift off once I closed my eyes.

-----

"If you're really a hero… choose your last words carefully."

"No, don't! Pleas-"

Chizome Akaguro, better known as the Hero Killer Stain, watched the terror in the man's eyes as his blade descended and decapitated him neatly at the neck, his lifeblood spilling onto the cold asphalt of the abandoned sidestreet.

"A poor decision." He wiped his sword clean with a rag. "At least in death, you will contribute to society's betterment where you failed to do so in life."

"He went in here!" A voice shouted from the main street, signalling the arrival of more Fake Heroes. Too many for him to fight, from the number of footsteps.

With a grimace, Stain kicked up the wall and leapt onto a fire escape ladder, clambering up towards the rooftops just as a quartet of figures burst onto the scene.

"Is that… Metallophase?"

"Oh god… I'm going to puke."

"Hey, up there! That's- that's Stain!"

"Get him!"

Stain threw himself to the side at just the last moment, gripping onto the ladder with just one hand as sharp quills the length of a man's arm whistled past, embedding into the wall where he had been just a moment ago.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Fake Hero with a Porcupine Quirk preparing another salvo, while more Heroes were running towards them. He needed to get out of there. If he could get to the rooftops he knew he could lose them.

He began to haul himself up with his right hand, but suddenly pain flared across his bicep. It felt as if his entire upper arm was on fire, and his grip almost slipped. As he struggled, he felt a sharp pain lance across his back as quills hammered into him, penetrating into flesh.

But Stain would not give the Fake Heroes the satisfaction of crying out. Instead he grit his teeth and let go of the ladder, pushing with his legs to jump to the opposite wall, kicking off of the concrete again and leaping up onto the rooftops.

-----

Slowly, one by one, he plucked off the quills, dropping them onto the floor of his hideout with a slight clatter. The room was one of several he'd staked out, hidden in the attic of an old apartment building.

The back of his shirt had been shredded and stained with blood- he'd have to acquire a new one soon. He was skilled enough at first aid, but treating wounds on one's back was no easy matter. It wasn't as if he could walk into a clinic without being recognized- at best, he could steal medical supplies, like the ones he was using at the moment to wrap a bandage around his torso.

Once he was done dressing the fresh wounds, Stain turned his attention on to the old ones. He hissed as he pulled the bandage around his upper right arm off, revealing blistered red skin, still raw to the touch. Even now, over a month after his battle with Endeavour… it still hadn't fully healed.

…

Stain jumped to his feet and his sword was in his hand in an instant, pointed at the spot of inky black mist that had appeared out of nowhere at the corner of the room. It expanded and grew, a pair of yellow eyes igniting in the darkness.

"Kurogiri."

The mist thickened as two shapes stepped through it, and Stain's expression twisted with distaste. The first one was Tomura Shigaraki, the leader of the so-called League of Villains. He'd met the young man before, when he had attempted to recruit him into his pesky little gang. The other was yet another of the Nomu creatures Shigaraki commanded through unknown means, a black-skinned brute not unlike the one unleashed on Hosu. He wasn't surprised that he had brought one along, after how close they had come to blows the last time they'd met.

"Shigaraki." He growled, pointing his sword at the man, pacing back and forth. "What do you want?"

"What, no pleasantries? Not even a thank you, after we pulled you out of the fire at Hosu? Quite literally." The blue-haired man said, nodding at Stain's burns. "You owe us."

"You expect me to believe you did it out of altruism?" He scoffed back. "I told you before, I'm not joining your petty little League."

"Good, because I didn't come to ask." He scratched his neck. "I need you to track someone down for me. There's a certain someone I want to get my hands on, but all I got is a name and a city. But you're great at tracking down Heroes, aren't ya?"

"Why would I help you?"

"Like I said, you owe us. But if that ain't enough for you…" Shigaraki leaned forward, gesturing around at Stain's hideout. "You're in the shitter right now, aren't you? Ever since Hosu and your loss to Endeavour, you've been on the back foot. Struggling with even the small fish, while the noose keeps tightening 'round you."

"And what do you think you could do about it?"

"Simple. You help us track this guy down, we help you kill Endeavour."

…

For the first time in the encounter, Stain paused in his pacing. "What?"

"You know, get a couple of Nomu to help take him down. Maybe even get you some medical treatment, this place reeks. Not that you would know."

"I don't need your help." He spat out.

"I'd say that it's pretty clear that you do, based on how things have been going." Shigaraki threw back. "You can still be the one to cut his neck if you insist, but if you couldn't do it uninjured, what makes you think you can do it now?"

Stain grit his teeth. "Who is it that you need tracked down?"

Shigaraki smiled. "The name's Gran Torino, and his Agency's located somewhere in Kofu. We don't know anything more than that, it's not listed publicly. We just need you to find him, and we'll take care of the rest."

"And what do you need him for?"

"What's it matter? Just another Fake Hero taken off the streets, you should be happy.

Stain paused for a moment. Working with the League was distasteful, but… the prospect of finally ridding society of Endeavour was tempting. The Flame Hero epitomized everything he stood against, and removing him would do more towards his goal than he could accomplish in a year of going after the small fish.

"Fine." He finally replied, lowering his sword.

Shigaraki gestured at the Nomu, which lumbered over to Stain, dropping a small communicator on his hands. "Use that to call us, once you've located Gran Torino."

-----

The fog gate closed behind them as Shigaraki and the Nomu stepped through, shrinking back and resolving itself into Kurogiri's normal, humanoid form.

"Are you sure you got the right name? Because I ain't explainin' to Stain that we messed it up and need him to find another target."

"Rest assured, Tomura Shigaraki, the information we received from our source was very clear. Izuku Midoriya will be interning with the retired Pro-Hero Gran Torino in the city of Kofu until the end of the week."

"Hmph. All this skulking around… we shoulda gone directly for that little brat. Track down his address and have you drop a buncha Nomu right on it."

The electronic speaker mounted on the wall of the bar crackled to life, an old, rough voice emanating from it.

"You must learn the value of patience, Tomura. Striking directly at All Might's successor would risk revealing that we are aware of him. If they caught wind of it, the Heroes would surely move him beyond your reach. But to strike at his mentor instead, who simply happens to be housing the boy at the time? Give them a more plausible explanation, and they will miss the true threat hidden beneath."

He grunted in annoyance, but didn't disagree. "Yeah yeah, attacking without playing any of your cards. I get it."

"Good, good. You are learning." What might have been a laugh emanated from the speaker. "Even if you fail here, you will try again, with renewed vigour. And once you have the boy in your possession… you will shatter All Might's legacy forever, by seizing the power of One For All."

Spoiler: A/N

I have been considering writing Part 2 to that AU Omake I wrote a while back, but I also kinda want to keep advancing the plot. Choices, choices...

 

[Blackout]

"Time to get up and at 'em!"

I blinked blearily as the shrill noise penetrated the fog of my dreams. I raised my head, slowly, and glanced at Burnin', standing by the doorway with a hand on her hips.

"No time for sleeping when we've got work to do! You have fifteen minutes to eat breakfast and meet me at the training room." She turned on her heel and marched out, leaving me to glare at her wake.

With a titanic effort I rolled to my feet and shook myself like a dog, chasing off the last vestiges of sleep as I glanced down at my wrist.

05:00

I felt a newfound hatred building up in my chest. But there was nothing to it, but to follow orders.

Thankfully I had no need to get dressed, so I trundled over to the cafeteria, where a meal had been laid out waiting for me. There were other people there, civilian employees and Sidekicks alike, some looking like they had just woken up as I had, while others seemed to be on break. I guess Strikethrough wasn't kidding about this place being active around the clock. None of them came up to talk to me, but I did get a handful of friendly waves which I did my best to return.

Fifteen minutes later, not a moment later or earlier, I lumbered back into the training room I'd already grown to resent. Burnin' was waiting for me, eyeing the clock.

"Thought you were never going to show up." She told me. "You know the drill. Fifty laps, on the double!"

I accelerated into a dead run, feet thumping against the hard metal floor. Fifty laps at full speed wasn't enough to exhaust me, but it was enough to get me breathing heavily, which was the whole point.

Then, if the pattern held from yesterday, would follow a series of breathing exercises while Burnin' needled and told me how terrible I was at this. It felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall.

But if that was what it took, then so be it. The other option was humiliation, and admitting that I wasn't cut out for this. And I wasn't going to give that smug bitch the satisfaction. I was going to learn this, no matter what, if only to spite her.

-----

Hours passed by in something of a haze as I grappled with the breathing techniques with renewed sense of purpose, clawing each inch of progress at a time.

And, eventually, even Burnin' ran out of issues to yell at me about.

"Enough." She finally told me, raising her hand to call me to a stop.

I glowered down at her.

"It's still not at the level that I would want, but it will do, if barely." She turned on her heel again, marching towards the door. "Head to the cafeteria for lunch, then come to Endeavour's office. You have twenty minutes."

Just like that.

I acknowledged her with a huff and stomped off to the cafeteria, still fuming. Who does she think she is?

By the time the allotted twenty minutes had passed I had calmed down a little, though the shimmer of resentment had yet to fade as I headed up the elevator once more. The door to Endeavour's office was slightly ajar, and I could hear Strikethrough's voice coming within.

"-ou can't just apply the same methods to everyone and expect to get the same results. People are different."

"It worked in the end, didn't it?" I heard Burnin' reply.

"Only took you what, ten hours?"

"It ain't my problem she's a slower learner."

"Enough." Endeavour's cold voice cut in. "Your bickering sets a poor example."

I knocked on the door with a little more force than I'd meant to, causing it to open.

"Right on time. Good." Endeavour said, striding over to me. "Your costume includes a communicator, correct?"

"Yes." I nodded, tapping the device around my wrist.

"Use this code to plug into the Agency network." He ordered briskly. "Do not misuse it. Listen in, but do not clog the lines unless you have a genuine emergency. The code changes daily at 0300."

"Understood." I nodded again, doing my best to conceal my foul mood.

"Good. Follow me." He said as he began walking towards the elevators, the others following in his wake, Strikethrough flashing me a quick smile.

"It is time to proceed to the next phase of your week here." Endeavour went on as the elevator descended. "Theoreticals and training are all well and good, but they are no substitutes for experience. It is time for your first patrol."

I felt my pulse quicken a little as I heard those words, igniting a flame that had been smoldering for a while now. Field work. The primary reason for this whole thing. My bitterness at Burnin' was forgotten in a flash.

"Endeavour Hero Agency primarily specializes in taking down villains, though we won't turn down rescue or evacuation jobs either." He continued. "Yesterday, we went over your combat skills, and identified what you need to work on."

I glanced at Todoroki- well, I suppose I should refer to him as Shoto to differentiate from his father- who grit his teeth at the remark. Whatever it was that they had talked about, he didn't seem happy.

"Both of you still have a long way to go in that regard, but the focus of this internship isn't just on fighting. 'Battle' is simply one part of the whole that you must master."

The elevator doors dinged and opened, as Endeavour led us out onto the street.

"Tatsuma." He suddenly said, pointing a finger at me. "What is the most important quality of a Hero?"

"...Their ability to inspire people?" I could guess that it wasn't what he was looking for, but it was what Ryuko had taught me.

"Incorrect." Endeavour stated, turning towards his son. "Shoto?"

"...Speed."

"Speed." Endeavour nodded. "That is the most essential quality of being a Pro-Hero, when you boil it down to the basics. The faster you are, the less people get hurt, the less damage is caused, and the more cases you can solve."

All well and good. If you are fast.

"You doubt me." Endeavour said without turning to look at me, taking me aback. How had he-

"Well… what about if you cannot move fast?"

"An excuse, nothing more." He stated bluntly. "There is more to speed than just moving fast. If you are slow in physical movements, you must begin moving before anyone else. Do not simply react, anticipate. If you cannot respond to your enemy in time, be proactive instead. Go on the offense and force the enemy into scenarios that are favorable to you." Endeavour said, slamming his fist into his palm. "If you are slow to accelerate, never stop moving. You must be always three steps ahead, smoothly transitioning from one move to another. Master the art of multitasking, parallel processing and taking in every detail at once, so that you do not have to pause to think. You cannot afford to be just as good as everyone else, you must be better."

...That was… I-

...He wasn't wrong.

Damn it, that was actually good advice.

I bowed my head in acknowledgement and Endeavour nodded at me, before turning away. "Good. I'm giving that to you as your assignment for the week. I want you to observe those principles in practice as you accompany us and internalize them."

"As for you, Shoto, you will watch my Hellflame in action. Perhaps then you will appreciate what you are missing."

What was he- that's right.

Todor- Shoto can produce ice from his right side and fire from his left, but for whatever reason he won't use the latter in combat. That was what Midoriya had told me.

But why?

Yoarashi maintained that it was arrogance, that he thought himself too good to use his full strength. But that didn't quite seem right to me. I mean, I could see him as arrogant, definitely, but that exchange just now...

Well, in any case, it wasn't really any of my business in the first place.

We continued our patrol across the city, taking a roughly circular path around the headquarters. Endeavour's flame-wreathed figure drew an immense amount of eyes upon us, but it also easily cut a path through the crowds, as people kept well clear of us.

It didn't take long for the first incident to occur, as we were crossing the marketplace.

One moment, Endeavour stopped in his tracks and, in a flash, a thin stream of fire exploded from his raised finger, streaking across the plaza. It snaked through the crowd, causing a ripple of startled gasps and hasty back-steps, until finally dipping down where I could not see, but the loud curse was clearly audible. I saw a slight figure bolt into the crowd, catching glimpse of a wallet dropping from red, blistered fingers.

I hesitated, unsure if I was supposed to give chase. For all of Endeavour's talk of speed, there was no way I could run into the crowd without people getting seriously hurt, and the Pros didn't seem to be moving-

"Shoto." Endeavour grunted impatiently.

The other intern growled, but stomped his right foot on the ground. A thin line of ice spread through the gap in the crowd, catching the fleeing pickpocket by the leg and freezing them in place.

"Strikethrough, Burnin' get her and call it in." Endeavour ordered and turned to us. "Tatsuma. You have superhuman senses, yet I noticed the pickpocket before you did. Why?"

"...Because you're more experienced than I am."

He nodded, a little to my surprise. "Because I know what to look for. Even the most powerful of senses are useless if you cannot read the signs. You, especially, must be able to discern a criminal even before they make their move or an accident before it happens, or you might be too late to stop it." He finished, before turning to look at his son. "Shoto. What do you think the purpose of these patrols is?"

"To boost your ego." Shoto mumbled defiantly.

I saw a muscle tug on Endeavour's cheek and his eyes narrow, but he turned to me. "Tatsuma."

"To reassure people." I swallowed. "That's why you went for the flashy Quirk usage. To draw attention."

"Yes. To reassure the civilians, but more importantly the criminals, that we are watching." He said. "We cannot catch every pickpocket and petty criminal in the city, not even if we had a hundred times the manpower. But if we can get them to believe we can, we can deter far more crime than we could catch. Intimidation and psychology are important tools in a Hero's arsenal."

It did not take long for a pair of uniformed police officers to show up, to take the pickpocket away. I could see her clearly for the first time; a teenager, not much older than Shoto and I. Her clothes seemed oversized and worn, but she stood straight-backed as she was escorted to the squad car, giving us a glare over her shoulder as she was taken inside.

Feeling uncomfortable, I averted my eyes and drummed my claws against the asphalt until we were ready to continue our patrol.

It followed roughly the same pattern, long hours of monotonous walking intersped by brief seconds of blindingly quick action. A couple more pickpockets, a mugging, and two traffic near-accidents. Endeavour continued to take the lead, precision fire blasts rocketing out before anyone else had even noticed the issue, often followed by an order for Shoto's ice to capture any fleeing subjects.

The sheer efficiency of those two Quirks working together coupled with Endeavour's ability to seemingly almost smell criminals from the crowds, honestly made me feel a little superfluous and out of place. For their part, if Burnin' and Strikethrough had any feelings of that order, they didn't show anything externally.

When the voice of the dispatcher team back at the HQ crackled in my ears, I almost welcomed the break in the monotony, though I rapidly regretted it.

"Robbery in the Neimoidia Bank. Assistance needed urgently."

Endeavour turned to me instantly, pointing a finger up at me. "Tatsuma! Can you carry us?"

I was taken aback by the swiftness of the change in situation, but cast my eyes on the crowd around us. "Need more room to take off or the civilians will be hurt by the backdraft."

Before the sentence was even fully out of my mouth, a stream of fire circled us, causing the crowd to shy back even as Endeavour was jumping onto my back, grabbing a hold of the harness mounted on the back of my vest alongside Shoto, Burnin' and Strikethrough. I could appreciate the truth of what he told me: He was using his flames with precision to scare off the civilians without harming them, while also climbing on and clipping himself in, and talking to his communicator all the while. No wasted movements, parallel processing.

I tensed my rear limbs and, the moment everyone was on, leapt into the air with a mighty beat of my wings. The wind buffeted the crowd, but the fire had forced them back just enough that nobody was hurt, and not an inch further.

I soared into the air, only to find my path marked by a thin stream of fire from Burnin', a faster and more reliable way of conveying the directions than trying to yell at me over the wind. I accelerated, and in only a few minutes I was already landing in front of the Bank, a landing zone cleared for us by the police officers surrounding the building.

An officer was waiting for us, wearing a bulletproof vest over his uniform.

"Four hostages, four criminals, armed. They've locked themselves in the vault, and are threatening to kill them if their demands aren't met."

I could almost hear the collective intake of air, even from the typically stoic Shoto. Hostage situation. What a way to start, for our first patrol.

Endeavour, for his part, seemed the only one unaffected as he simply pressed on. "Have the villains been identified?"

"We've pulled footage from the security cameras, and our analysts are working on it as we speak." The officer pulled out a tablet and gave it to Endeavour, who glanced at it once before handing it off to Strikethrough.

"Pass this onto our support team, they are faster."

I swallowed slowly as I followed the rapid-fire exchange. Everything seemed to be happening so quickly.

And now people's lives were on the line. It was terrifying, yet… this was also the reality of this career. This was what I had chosen to get myself into.

"Is the inside of the building secure?"

"Yes." The officer replied. "We've swept the building, aside from the vault."

I eyed the front doors of the bank. "Should I wait outside, or…?"

Endeavour didn't even turn to look at me. "You will observe us. And I might have a need for you."

I sighed.

In the end, I had to crawl down on my belly and wiggle like some sort of landworm to get through without completely demolishing the doorframe. A little undignified, but I wasn't about to complain.

The building itself was relatively large, though I still had to keep my head low to stop my horn from scratching the ceiling. We entered the bank's reception area, many of the cubicles overturned and papers scattered on the floor, while more police officers were swarming over the scene.

"Detective Masao Yamashita. I'm in charge here."

Endeavour nodded gruffly. "These are my sidekicks Burnin' and Strikethrough, and my interns… Shoto and Ryuuzaki." I could tell that he didn't approve of our choices in Hero Names.

Yamashita's gaze snapped back to me for a moment, probably surprised about my age, before turning back to Endeavour. "This is no place for children."

"They are here under my supervision and responsibility." Endeavour grunted. "They stay."

The Detective looked like he wanted to argue the point further, but relented. "We don't yet have the full story, but based on the surveillance footage we know that the four villains entered the building seventeen minutes ago and took three employees, including the shift Manager, and a fourth bystander as hostages before locking themselves into the bank's vault."

"I was told they've been making threats?" Endeavour questioned.

"Yes. We got the cell phone number of one of the hostages and have been able to make contact with the villains. I've been working with our negotiators, but the villains' behaviour so far has been… erratic. Making threats, moodswings, changing demands- how much money, how it's delivered, how many hostages they'll release for it. We can't get a read on what they actually want.

"They haven't asked for safe passage out?" Strikethrough asked.

"...No, I don't believe so." Yamashita's brow furrowed.

"Something doesn't add up." Burnin' noted. "If they were after money, why would they lock themselves in, rather than grabbing the cash and running?"

"Maybe they panicked?" Strikethrough offered.

"They would have had to have planned this ahead of time." Burnin' said. "Bank vaults are time-locked. You can't get in unless you come at just the right time."

"Could be coincidence?" He replied. "Just to play devil's advocate here."

"It's never coincidence until proven otherwise."

"Has the analysis team gotten back on the footage we sent them?" Endeavour interrupted.

Strikethrough put a finger to his ear, muttering something. A moment later, he nodded. "We have names. All confirmed or suspected members of the Broken Circle. Pro-Mutant extremist group known for making terror attacks."

"Thought so. Cleaved too close to their MO." Endeavour folded his arms, turning to look at Detective Yamashita. "That's why your negotiators can't make heads or tails out of them. They're not after money, they just want to draw things out until the media gets here."

"They want attention." Yamashita mused with a note of realization.

"Exactly. You can't negotiate with someone who's not interested in a peaceful resolution." Endeavour stated firmly. "I've seen it before. They'll have come in fully knowing none of them are walking free after this. They won't hesitate to hurt hostages."

"So what do we do?" Strikethrough asked.

"We don't give them what they want, of course." Endeavour grunted. "It's been less than twenty minutes, even the worst vultures won't have caught wind of this yet. We nip this in the bud and it won't be more than a footnote in tomorrow's newspapers."

"Now hold on a second." Yamashita raised a hand. "We can't just rush in guns blazing. Our first priority is to think of the men and women being held hostage."

"I am." Endeavour said, glaring down at the smaller man. "Understand, Detective, that we are talking about a cell of unstable extremists whose only goal is to create spectacle. The vault will have to be stormed, either now or tomorrow, and it's better to do it before they start killing off hostages."

"I understand." Yamashita deflated. "But there is still the matter of the locked vault door standing between us and them."

"All the better, they'll think themselves invulnerable behind it, allowing us to take them off guard." Endeavour stated. "Take us there."

"...You do have a plan, right?"

"We'll see."

With each word of the exchange, I had felt myself more and more out of place, here. I glanced at Shoto as we followed Detective Yamashita deeper into the building, but his face was as coldly dispassionate as ever. Strikethrough though, looked more than a little out of it.

"Do you guys… deal with this kind of situation often?" I asked him, hoping Endeavour was far enough away not to hear.

"What? Oh, yeah, of course, all the time. This is nothing out of the ordinary." He assured me, even though his heart rate told an entirely different story.

Yamashita brought us to the back of the building's office area, in front of a massive, circular vault door. Several thick wooden desks had been dragged into the space in front of it and upturned, with several police officers with guns drawn guarding the vault.

"This here is the main vault. We're trying to get in contact with off-shift bank workers to get an idea of the layout, but-"

"No need." Endeavour grunted. "Strikethrough?"

"Right!" He walked up to the door. "Behind the door there's a hallway that splits off into six ancillary chambers. They're all in the far left one, four hostages and four villains, exactly as in the footage."

"Weapons?"

"Three pistols and one submachine gun." A bit of sweat ran down Strikethrough's forehead. "One of them is talking on the phone. The others are watching the hostages."

"And the hostages?" Yamashita asked.

"Alive, but battered. I think one of them tried to fight. He's… bleeding pretty badly."

"We're going in." Endeavour announced. "What about the door, can we melt through it?"

"No." Strikethrough said after a moment, rubbing his eyes. "Not even all… three of you. Not fast enough. It's designed against plasma cutters."

"Hm." Endeavour grunted, before casting his eyes my way, causing me to take a step back. "What about her?"

"...You can't be serious."

"Yes or no, Strikethrough."

"...No." He shook his head. "Still too slow. They'd notice, and then..."

"What about both?" I heard the words spoken, but it was only when all eyes in the room turned to me that I realized it was me who had said them. It was like my tongue had moved on its own.

"I-I mean, soften it with heat while I hit it?" I swallowed dryly. "W-would that work?"

Endeavour looked at Strikethrough, who sighed. "It… could work."

"Not good enough. Will it, or won't it?"

He took a deep breath. "It will." He walked up to the vault and turned to look at me. "Just get as much of a run-up as you can, and hit it right here." He tapped a finger to a point just underneath the handle of the enormous door.

"That still leaves the bits of superheated metal lying around." Burnin' noted. "We'll need to get past to subdue the villains."

"I can deal with that." Shoto noted calmly, the first time that he'd spoken since the whole situation began. "My ice can cover the metal and allow you to pass safely."

"The steam will also disorient the villains, making our job easier." Burnin' snapped her fingers. "Not bad, squirt."

"Fine." Endeavour grunted. "We have a plan, then. Burnin' and I heat up the door, Ryuuzaki breaks it down, Shoto clears the way, Burnin' and I disable the villains. Strikethrough, I want a detailed floor plan of the vault and the exact positions of the villains."

"Got it." He unclipped a drawing tablet from his belt and began sketching with rapid strokes.

"You think it wise to use students, who don't even have their Provisional Licenses yet?" Yamashita raised an eyebrow.

"A provisional license is only required to act without the supervision of a Pro-Hero." Endeavour crossed his arms. "I am here, aren't I?"

"I know the law as well as you do." The Detective replied. "Just because it's legal doesn't make it a good idea."

"They will be acting in a support role only, opening a path into the vault." He leaned forward slightly, looking down at the Detective. "Do you disagree that we can trust them with that?"

'Do you have any better ideas?' went unsaid.

After a moment's stand-off, Yamashita backed down. "Very well."

"Good." Endeavour said before turning back towards us. "We will go over the plan step by step, until there is no room for error. We have only one shot at this."

-----

I was crouched at the far end of the office area, my back almost touching the wall, my muscles tensed and ready to uncoil with explosive force at a moment's notice.

"Now!"

The words seemed to hang in the air. I almost feared that my muscles would refuse to obey me, my own flesh betraying me, but then in an instant of clarity all of that tension was released.

I charged.

Flames blasted out from either side of me, blue and green fire from Endeavour and Burnin' mixing together as they washed over the door. Such was the intensity of the heat that the metal began to glow almost immediately, warping in its frame.

Afew seconds later my horn hit the vault door like a sabot round, every bit of force my frame could muster focused into that singular, sharpened point. It punched into the white-hot metal, sinking deep as I threw my entire body against the door.

That moment of impact seemed to stretch into an eternity. It almost felt like my neck would snap from the strain. Then, with a terrible, thunderous clang the vault door cracked vertically, two halves clattering onto the floor beyond.

I threw myself to the side even as four laser-thin streams of fire zipped past me, curving to the left, and I could hear curses from deeper into the vault, as the villains found their weapons melting and warping in their hands.

All around me, ice covered the molten remnants of the door, filling the air with hissing steam. Endeavour and Burnin' were only a step behind me and leaped through without hesitation. I could not see through the thick haze, but I could hear more cursing and thuds, followed by a loud and crisp voice.

"All clear!"

I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled myself to my feet. Police officers flooded into the vault while I did my best to not stand in the way- a difficult feat, considering my bulk. They ushered the hostages out first, looking like they'd just had the shock of their lives, but unhurt.

All of that had taken place over a timespan of less than twenty seconds. It almost felt surreal. But I had done it. I hadn't found a way to screw up.

Moments later, the villains were escorted out of the vault in thick metal cuffs. The first thing that struck me as I glanced at it over his shoulder was that each of the attackers had a Mutant-type Quirk- a leopard and a goat, one had a mechanical pincer claw in place of his left and the last seemed like some kind of fish.

The second was that the last one… seemed oddly familiar. He was a huge man with the head of what I'd guess to be a grouper, his clammy skin colored green.

And the third was that he seemed to recognize me, as well.

"You..." He hissed. "Do I know you?"

"...No?"

"You're… Kenshin's kid, right?" He said, his milky-white eyes peering at me.

"Hey, move along!" The police officer escorting him shoved the man forwards, and they passed out of my view. I watched after him for a few moments, before turning my eyes back to the scene in front of me.

"Hey, you alright?" A disheveled-looking Strikethrough asked me as he approached.

"You look like somebody should ask that of you."

"Nah, man, I'm a licensed Pro-Hero." He waved it off. "This was your first time right?"

"I'm fine." I breathed out. "It was terrifying, but…"

"But?"

"I was just thinking about how much worse it must've been for them." I nodded in the direction of the hostages, who were being checked over by paramedics. "I'm sure you guys would have figured out another way in eventually, but… I'm just happy to have been able to help them."

I thought back to what I'd told Nedzu, months ago. These people were where I had been. Held at gunpoint. Terrified. Helpless.

But unlike me, someone had come for them. Me. Thanks to me, even if only in part, these people did not have to go through what I did.

Even if I accomplished nothing else with this life that I'd been given… that, alone, made it all worth it.

 

[Blackout]

Endeavour didn't say it, but the absence of disparaging comments as we returned to the Agency indicated that he was at least somewhat satisfied with my performance.

Hopefully.

"Strikethrough." He rumbled. "Take Tatsuma in for the debriefing, show her how to file a report."

Strikethrough jolted, still looking a little shaken, but nodded and gestured for me to follow. He took me to one of the elevators and, moments later, to one of the ancillary wings.

"This is the Sidekicks Office. One of them anyway." He told me as we stepped inside.

It was, well, a fairly typical office space, packed with work stations. A couple of other sidekicks were there, raising a hand in greeting as we made our way to Strikethrough's desk.

"Okay, so, you won't need to make these until you get your Provisional License and start doing solo work, but it's better to start early." He sat down on his chair, booting up the computer. I sat down awkwardly beside him, trying my best not to block anyone's path. "I'm… not really sure how that would work for you but-"

"I can write with a touchscreen. A really large touchscreen."

"Oh, good." After a few clicks, he pulled up the blank form on the screen. "Basically, every time you make an arrest you gotta write a report on the incident for the Public Safety Commission, who then forward it to the Police Department and the Prosecutor's Office. Um, I don't know how much they've taught you about this stuff already, so I'll just start from the basics..."

"Vlad King mentioned it, but didn't go into detail." I tapped my claws on the floor. "Did you go to UA?"

"Hm? Oh, no, no, not even close." He rubbed the back of his head. "They only take in the 40 best of each year. I'm just an average guy. I went to Jedha Academy- a very minor Hero School, you probably won't have heard of it."

I shook my head.

"I got scouted by- well, Ryuhachi, actually." He suddenly looked uncomfortable, glancing up at me.

"You knew my uncle?" I asked warily.

"Well, yeah. He got me this job, taught me some tricks about sensory Quirks. Endeavour put him in charge of me when I interned here. Kind of like, uh, I'm supposed to be doing for you."

"Did he ever… say something about me or my sister?"

"I know you didn't, um, get along. If that's what you meant." He rubbed the back of his head again. "You don't have to dance around it."

"How?" I asked.

"Oh, he wouldn't shut up about it. It was around the time Ryukyu first started making waves, you'd think it was the greatest injustice ever known to man listening to him." He drummed his fingers on the desk. "Don't, uh, worry about it. It's none of my business really. He was nice enough, and handy in a fight, but you'd just kinda get the sense that he thought he was too good for the rest of us sidekicks."

"I see." I mused. "Is that why he left?"

"Well… you didn't hear it from me, but… no. It was actually because of you."

"Me? What did I do?"

"Okay, so, way back, Endeavour was considering offering to mentor your sister. You know, take her in for some training, show her a few pointers, and if she meets expectations offer her a recommendation."

I nodded along. Most Recommendations were done between family members, but it wasn't unheard of for Pro-Heroes to sponsor young kids who they thought had potential. But I couldn't help but think of Ryuko's bitter comment when she'd explained the Entrance Exams to me.

"Who would've recommended me?"

I was going to tell her, when I had the chance.

"So what happened?"

"Well, Ryuhachi advised against it. He told Endeavour the, um, "Branch Family Tatsumas", as he called you, weren't worth consideration." He answered, and I felt my anger rising. "Then of course Ryukyu went on to become the youngest Hero to reach the Top Ten, at least until Hawks usurped her. That was a big blow to Endeavour, losing out on that opportunity. And then when you passed UA's Recommendation Exams with a higher score than Shoto, well, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was obvious Ryuhachi was giving biased advice. There was a big argument, he said that if you were invited to the Agency he'd leave, and Endeavour told him to go ahead. And… that's how it went down. Ryuhachi poached a couple of other sidekicks and started his own business."

I nodded, slowly trying to process the new information. "You weren't interested in joining him?"

"Nah. Sure, in a smaller office I'd probably get a bigger share of the publicity, but I'm just not that kind of guy. I'd be doing the same stuff with less pay and less support. I just want to save some lives and do my job, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." I mumbled. "I suppose we probably should return to that."

"Oh, yeah, definitely." He said, returning his eyes to the computer screen. "Okay, so, the thing about reports is that you gotta write them every time. Yeah, it's a chore, but what can you do? Rule of Law and all that stuff. So the trick is to find a way to get all the major stuff down concisely, without getting bogged down with the trivia. And it's important to only write down what you're sure about. You misremember some little thing in the heat of the moment and then the Public Safety Commission comes knocking and it'll be a huge mess..."

-----

The cafeteria was packed with people. Sidekicks, civilian employees, filling the large hall almost wall to wall in their hundreds. It had to be the peak of the lunch rush, which left me with something of a problem. Namely, that there was simply no place for me and my ungainly bulk to fit and sit down to eat.

Well, except for one. At the corner of the room I saw Shoto, and around him the crowd was much sparser. I wasn't sure whether it was because of his foul mood or that they were intimidated by his parentage, but everyone seemed to give him a wide berth. Which ironically made me unable to do the same, no matter that I wasn't keen on it either.

But I didn't exactly have any other options if I wanted to finish in time. So, awkwardly clutching the pot of meat in one talon I made my way towards Shoto, getting many dirty looks as I pushed through the crowd and set myself beside the split-haired boy.

"Why are you here?" He snapped.

"Where else am I supposed to go?" I nodded my head at the crowd. "Why are you here?"

"To eat." He said, looking at me like I was an idiot.

"No, I mean… in general. At this Agency."

"What do you care?"

I shrugged my broad shoulders. "You clearly don't want to be here… yet you are. Why do that to yourself?"

He looked taken aback for an instant, before composing himself. "You think my father gave me a choice in the matter?" He laughed bitterly. "And, after the Sports Festival… I thought maybe… well, it doesn't matter. You wouldn't understand." Abruptly, he grabbed his plate and stood up from his seat, stalking off.

I watched him go until he disappeared from sight, not sure whether to make heads or tails out of the encounter, before returning to my food.

-----

With my lessons under Burnin' complete, it seemed like Endeavour had deemed me worth his personal attention once more. We were in his personal training chambers again, the clang of the door closing behind me echoing through the cavernous room. As before, he waited for me at the center of the room, his arms folded.

"When you came here, you had plenty of power, but little in the way of control. I had intended to begin with this stage earlier, but I did not anticipate that you weren't familiar with even the basic breathing techniques." He stated coldly. "As it was, your fire breath was worthless in a real encounter out in the field. A haphazard attack like that would only be a liability."

I ground my teeth, but said nothing. My sister used lightning, not fire, and my mother never bothered to teach me anything about my Quirk other than how to activate it. I hadn't even known for sure that I could breathe fire until a month ago. Where exactly was I supposed to have learned breathing techniques?

"So it falls to us to remedy that. First, show me what Burnin' has taught you."

I closed my eyes, and drew out my anger. I felt the heat burst forth from my chest, up my throat and into the air. But to my surprise, when I fought to hold it back, it actually worked. I forced myself to inhale, and the flame guttered out. I pulled on the fire again, holding it ready, before exhaling it out.

Instead of vomiting forth a torrent of fire, I was breathing it.

"I see that those hours were not entirely wasted. Good. It means we don't need to waste any more time on that." Endeavour nodded once. "You can control the timing of the flame. But what of the shape?

"...What do you mean?"

"Reduced down to the essentials, you need to know how much clear space around your target you need for your attack. Material damage cannot always be avoided, but placing civilians in danger is not an option. That carefulness needs to be doubled when flames are involved, because even just a single spark can ignite a fire that will rapidly spread beyond your ability to contain. You cannot allow yourself to, in your carelessness, become an even greater danger than the villains you fight." He told me, pacing past me. "Your fire breath comes out of your mouth in a cone of about sixty degrees. That means that, say, fifty meters away, the blast is a little less than sixty meters wide. Imagine a scenario where there is a sixty-meter wide space around your opponent where there is nothing you want to avoid hitting. How common do you think those scenarios will be?" He asked, turning back to me.

"Not very." I mumbled. I understood his point, but not what he was getting at with this.

"As a Hero, you will rarely get to set the terms of engagement, and so they'll almost never be the ones you want. You must adapt yourself to the circumstances, rather than the other way around."

"I understand that." I said, a little impatient for him to get on with it. "But how?"

"You must shape the flame." He replied, like it was the simplest thing in the world. "Direct it."

"I cannot." I stammered. "I just breathe fire, I can't-"

"You can't, or you think you can't?" Endeavour interrupted pointedly. "It is your fire, born from your anger, or less poetically, your Quirk Factor. It is a part of you, as any of your limbs. Bend it to your will."

"I..." I'd never even thought-

"Fire is a potent tool, but ruinous if given free reign. It needs a firm hand to keep it in check. Do you have that strength? Or did I misjudge you?"

"I do." I said, before repeating with more conviction. "I do."

"Then show me. Summon the flame. Feel it. Control it."

I took a deep breath, and breathed fire. I closed my eyes and just focused on the fire streaming out of my mouth. At a loss for what to do, I tried to, for a lack of a better word, pull on it.

And, to my amazement, it worked. Only a tiny bit. But I could feel it. I opened my eyes, and saw that the cone of fire narrowed fractionally, the flames on the edge wobbling slightly as I struggled to control them.

"Yes. Good." Endeavour said, a slight smile forming on his lips. "Now, besides accuracy, there is another benefit to compressing an attack. Density. With the same amount of energy focused in a smaller area, penetrating obstacles and defenses becomes easier. A narrow attack only needs to pierce through a small portion of the target, and ensures that no energy is wasted."

There was a glint in his eyes as he talked, looking off into the distance. Even his tone was different.

"Focus on just shaving off a few angles at first. Even a small improvement will count for a lot. Eventually, you'll have the angle down to a zero, and the cone becomes a line, a beam. Then, the true task begins. Increase output without increasing volume. Compress. Focus. Intensify. When you can release your maximum output in an instant, compressed to a single point, you will have achieved Flashfire."

I took a step back in shock at Endeavour's words. That… was his own Super Move. "...Really?"

Endeavour blinked, taken aback for an instant. Almost as if he'd forgotten I was there. "Perhaps. In time."

But my attention wasn't on him.

Endeavour thought that I could learn Flashfire. The Number Two Hero thought that I had the potential to learn his signature Super Move.

Despite myself, it was hard not to feel elated.

"For now, focus on the present. Do not allow yourself to become distracted by possibilities far in the future."

"Right."

He unclipped a remote from his belt and pressed it, and several panels in the walls slid open to reveal holographic projectors. They whirred to life, projecting a series of red and blue targets across the training room.

"Now, we move on to the next phase. Hit the red targets with your fire, without touching the blue."

-----

Hours later, Endeavour called an end to the training session. And for the first time at the Agency, I could confidently say that it had felt productive. It wasn't much, but I'd managed to narrow the cone of my fire breath by a visibly noticeable degree.

"Your improvement has been… satisfactory. It is a shame that the time you spent with Burnin' was not equally productive."

By the standards I'd come to expect from him, that was practically glowing praise.

"What's next?"

"Come with me. It is time to put what you have learned to a more practical test."

He led me to the back door of the building. Behind the Endeavour Hero Agency, hidden from street view, was a large warehouse-like building, a sign with "Training Field" written on it over the doors. Strikethrough had mentioned it when he showed me around the place, it was where team training was typically conducted. Or if there were large-scale attacks being employed.

Inside was a massive open space with a floor of hard-packed dirt, not unlike the field Ryuko rented for training. And there, standing alone, was Shoto, regarding our approach with disdain.

"Father." He acknowledged Endeavour without looking at me.

"Shoto." Endeavour replied, looking at both of us. "Until now the two of you have trained separately, to improve upon your weaknesses, but training alone will not suffice. Both of you were able to apply your abilities in practice at the Bank, but only in a support role. That, too, will not suffice. Teamwork is a bonus, but a true Hero needs to be able to act on his own."

"Just get to the point."

Endeavour's eyebrow twitched. "To that end, the two of you will engage in a sparring match. Test your strength and skills against one another in combat."

Shoto simply snorted and nodded, walking off towards the open field.

"And the conditions?" I asked.

"The match ends when I say it ends. Don't kill each other." Endeavour replied simply.

I looked at him for a moment, but that seemed to be all I would get. I lumbered into position at the other end of the field, trying to concentrate.

Okay. Anticipate. What would I do in his boots?

...I'd lead with that big glacier attack he's used in the Sports Festival. It was a little risky but his ice was still much faster than my fire, and with him there to reinforce the glacier I didn't think I could break free like I had at the beginning of the Obstacle Course.

But would he go all-in right from the beginning? He'd only used it in his first match in the tournament, against a classmate, which suggested that it had to be pretty close to his limit. If he could just throw around attacks of that scale, he would've done so in the earlier parts, but instead he'd fought more conservatively.

That was my advantage. His ice was stronger than my fire, but it was his only option to use in a fight. I could wear him down with physical attacks.

I took my place at the other end of the field, turning around to face my opponent. His sullen expression hadn't subsided, but his eyes told me he was perfectly focused on the present. It would have been too much to ask for, for him to be distracted by his father.

For a few moments we stood there, eyes locked one another, neither moving a muscle.

"Begin."

Then the ice surged forth from his right foot, snaking towards me. I spun on my heel, smashing it apart with my tail and sending shards the size of a man's forearm flying right at him. The flow of ice parted into two, one raising to shield him while the other continued at me.

Of course he was skilled enough to attack and defend at the same time. But he couldn't do that and maintain visibility.

As the shards shattered against his shield I charged, beating my wings to propel myself forward and dodge the second attack. I shattered the ice barrier like so much glass with my horn, claws swiping for Shoto, but his reflexes were impeccable.

He slid back, propelled by ice as he had done in the Obstacle Course, but this time the excess ice also served as an attack, crashing into my chest. Offense and defence, rolled into one move. It enveloped me in a flash, far faster than earlier. He was committing to the attack. It was too soon. If I tried to match ice with flame I'd lose.

So instead I drew a deep breath and roared at Shoto with everything I had.

Right before we began I had activated the noise cancellers from my wrist computer, protecting my ears from the brunt of the sonic assault, while Shoto had no such protection. He might not need his hands to direct his Quirk like Yoarashi, but it's still hard to do while being blasted with a sheer wall of noise. I took advantage of the momentary lull to break the ice holding me in place, charging forward as Shoto stumbled and fell, his hands flying to his ears.

Yeah, wasn't so much fun on the receiving end, was it?

He answered by way of throwing an iceberg at me.

Not one of his typical streams of ice, meant to wrap around and envelop a target, but a chunk of frozen water almost as big as I was, hurled at me at speeds comparable to a freight train. It hit me like the sledgehammer of God himself, and I was treated to the peculiar sensation of being sent flying as the world spun around me. I bounced off the hard-packed dirt once, before rolling to a halt, my vision swimming.

Midoriya had told me he considered Shoto to be the most dangerous of the UA First Years. It wasn't just that his Quirk was monstrously strong, though that it certainly was. It was that he was damn skilled at using it.

I pushed to my feet to see Shoto doing the same, a hand on his temple and his mouth twisted in a pained grimace. Even while under sonic attack, he'd had the presence of mind to realize what was happening and counterattack. A simplistic application of brute force, perhaps, but it accomplished the goal of putting distance between us.

Keep moving. I sprang off the ground, Endeavour's advice ringing in my ears. Can't afford to pause to think. Using my wings as a third pair of limbs I threw myself at Shoto, swinging wildly and forcing him to create an ice shield to protect himself.

I continued to hammer at him, keeping the pressure on and driving him back. If you cannot respond to your enemy in time, be proactive instead. Go on the offense and force the enemy into scenarios that are favorable to you.

Any time the ice would start to form for an attack, I would smash it. I didn't give him room to attack, to even think. His attention was divided between backpedaling, defending himself and trying to counterattack.

And it was working. I could see flakes of frost forming on his skin and clothes, and the ice was coming slower and slower. The relentless assault was wearing him down. Something would have to give.

The next time I swung at him, he attacked between my strikes, the ice moving faster than I'd expected as it wrapped around my forelimb, travelling up towards my torso. He'd been holding back.

But not enough, it was still slower than it had been. I roared again, and though the effect wasn't as stark now that he was expecting it, the disruption was sufficient for me to break the ice and surge forward.

Except that too had been a distraction, a moment of reprieve he'd used to create a thin pillar of ice beneath him and launch himself back, putting distance between us once more. Too much distance for me to close in time for what was to come. This was it.

A veritable flood of ice burst from his feet, barreling towards me. It wasn't his full strength- less than half as much as he'd used in the Tournament Match, and slower as well. I'd blunted the worst of it, now I just had to survive the remainder.

I breathed in, closing my eyes for just a moment.

Fujiwara. Ryuhachi. I took in fresh umbrage from what I'd learned from Strikethrough, how he'd sabotaged Ryuko even from behind the scenes.

And then I breathed out.

The flame burst from my mouth just before the ice reached me, slamming into the incoming glacier. Frozen water turned into steam in an instant, clouds billowing in all directions as the flame carved through the ice. For a handful of heartbeats our Quirks continued to clash, the balance hanging on a razor's edge, until the stream of fire pierced through and the ice burst apart in an explosion of steam.

I couldn't help but feel a little awed as I cut off the flame, taking care to use no more force than was necessary. Even so, Shoto was thrown from his feet, landing roughly on his back.

At the Sports Festival I had assessed him as the one enemy I couldn't beat. Yet here I was.

A crackle of ice snapped me back to the present, where the match wasn't yet over. But it was little more than a token of defiance; Shoto's body was covered in frost, his limbs shivering. The ice was sluggish and feeble, what had once been a raging torrent now a mere trickle, and I shattered it with my horn as I charged.

Go for his left, it's the blindspot. Even if he was holding back something, he wouldn't be able to do anything with it.

For a moment I locked gazes with Shoto, and saw the anger and frustration in his mismatched eyes.

Then, I saw it. A spark of flames igniting on his left side. In a moment of instinct I put more force into the blow, to smash through whatever trick he had up his sleeve- and then the fire was gone, like it had never been there. But I was committed to the swing, and my paw slammed into Shoto with far more force than necessary. I was glad not to hear the distinctive snap of bones breaking as he was sent flying once again, bouncing off the ground.

Before he could get up I put my paw on his chest, just light enough to hold him down, and looked at Endeavour.

"Sufficient. Tatsuma wins." He said without looking at me, marching up to Shoto, his flames smoldering. "What was that?"

"A loss. That was your intent, wasn't it?" Shoto threw back as I stepped off of him, pulling himself to his feet.

"Do not play coy with me, boy." He snarled. "I saw the fire."

"An instinct. A mistake. Nothing more. I'll be sure to be more careful next time."

Endeavour drew in a breath and seemed like he wanted to say more, but moved his gaze to me. "Good work. You may return to your quarters, we are done for the day."

I felt unsure as to what exactly was happening, but Endeavour's withering glare brooked no arguments or questions, and so I turned on my heel.

Then, right after the door closed behind me, I heard Shoto's voice speak up. "So, when are you going to tell her?"

"Tell her what?"

"That you brought her here just to serve as my sparring partner?"

...I came to an abrupt halt, not daring to breathe.

"You thought you were being subtle, teaching her what you want me to learn and hoping that I would change my mind after seeing it in practice? Did you think that I would get jealous?"

"You leave me with no choice." Endeavour snapped, the crackle of flames rising over his voice. "I had hoped that after seeing the limitations of your mother's Quirk at the Sports Festival and accepting my Internship offer-"

"A decision I regret daily." Shoto interrupted dryly.

"-you had come to your senses, but still you defy me with your childishness!" I could hear his finger clenching into fists. "How can you not see that you are wasting your potential?! Your peers move past you while you remain stuck on this plateau of your own making!"

"I will make do." For the first time, I could hear an edge of uncertainty in his voice.

"You disgrace me, and your own destiny. Too much of your mother in you."

There was an intake of breath from Shoto before he replied, his tone acidic. "Is that so? Understand, that I will never use your Quirk. I reject your legacy. I will become a Hero using only my mother's Quirk."

Those final words were followed by the sound of brisk footsteps, approaching the door.

Jolting into action, I hastened to get out of sight before either of them saw that I had been listening, clearing the corner just in time.

The rest of the way to my room passed in a daze, my mind still trying to process what I'd just heard. There was, of course, the first glimpse of just how bad things were between the two of them. But I pushed those thoughts aside. There was only one thing ringing in my mind as I walked.

Endeavour brought me here just to teach a lesson to Shoto.

He hadn't even denied the accusation, and it… fit. It answered the questions that had been gnawing at me. I wasn't here because he actually thought I had potential. Of course not.

The advice, the training, the whole damned Internship… it was all just to make a point to his son. I was just leverage in their personal quarrel.

A small, pragmatic, cynical part of me reminded me it didn't erase what he had taught me, I had genuinely improved under his tutelage. But it was hard not to feel betrayed.

Just when I was starting to feel good about this.

After I reached my room, it took a long while for me to drift off to sleep.