My Hero Academia Alternative Universe: "Silencio" - JudasMagnus1994 - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Spite and jealousy can be one of the most effective motivators to do something in life. The big problem is that few people in the world are able to channel those negative emotions in order to be able to do something positive in general.

A particular case in this particular universe are Izuku's former classmates from Aldera. They knew that Izuku made it to U.A. somehow despite being a quirkless freak and said jealousy motivated them to create a video containing all the bullying and humiliation that Izuku suffered in Aldera in order to release that video as blackmail footage to coerce Izuku in the future but the moment that they saw how Izuku was starting to fight against Endeavor's son. That jealousy got out of control and they played their hand way earlier in order to use that video to crash and burn Izuku's hopes to be a hero after said video was released. But not only the means and the timing that they chose to release the video by hacking the U.A. stadium main screen to show that footage only succeding in one thing, said video only caused Izuku to freeze in pure shock when that footage showed and that cost him his match when he was too distraught to defend himself from Todoroki's ice.

The public saw Izuku at his lowest point being bullied and even beaten in Aldera while his peers and even teachers only mocked him and belittled him for being a waste of space. To see Izuku on the verge of tears after more than just one nasty beating repeating to himself that a hero always stood firm against any kind of adversity like a mad mantra to keep himself from having a mental breakdown more than once didn't humiliate him to the eye of the public as much as those kids believed.

Some did mock Izuku for that weakness, but the rest of the people and a lot of the heroes saw Izuku as the underdog that life has beaten more than once and someone who refused to fall into despair and pushed forward through sheer force of will. The reveal of his past quirklessness status allowed the heroes to find a plausible and excusable reason for Izuku's lack of control of his quirk. That destructive power that Izuku had was something that not only he was able to use recently, but he had no time to properly learn how to use it.

The one that was humiliated was Todoroki, the public not only called him out for handicapping himself by only using half of his quirk, but also to had defeated Izuku with that cheap shot while Izuku was too distraught to even defend himself, this situation was not a real fight, so that action that secured Todoroki's victory was treated with scorn and a lot of people in the stadium chanted the words of fraud and failure of a hero student to refer to Todoroki in this situation.

Then the video changed to another one that showed how Bakugo not only viciously bullied Izuku, but also other students of Aldera, and then the video ended with Bakugo's suicide baiting Izuku the same day that Izuku tried to save his life.

"I was too coward to do a damn thing when you were suffering..." A distorted voice then said when the video about Bakugo's bullying was over.

"But now I had enough..., those classmates of yours of Aldera that have compiled this video proof to humiliate you for getting farther in life than them, was my opportunity to finally do some real justice in this world" that voice said in a menacing voice.

"This society loves to put into a pedestal to people that were born right in this world while ignoring those less blessed. Their sins are ignored because they are "heroic" even if they act like villainous scumbags that no one would tolerate if their quirks weren't so heroic..." the voice said.

"So now the heroic society has a chance to show if they are truly heroic or that heroism is a joke. Would you absolve Bakugo from his sins despite the fact that he is unrepentant of his actions of villainy that he had committed during the years? Or would you actually force him to pay for his crimes and villainous actions?" The voice said while the screen was showing again the recordings about how Bakugo assaulted others causing bodily harm with his quirk while not being reprimanded by the faculty of Aldera.

The screen went dead and a tense silence spread in the stadium for a while. Only to be broken by the sound of Bakugo's quirk releasing small explosions before Bakugo launched himself to the arenas from the bleachers with his explosions to kill izuku if his screams of rage could be taken as an admission.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! sh*tTY DEKU!" Bakugo screamed with a deranged voice filled with hatred and rage that echoed in the whole stadium. Neither Todoroki nor Izuku reacted for different reasons, Todoroki didn't cared at all for Izuku now that he had been humiliated by the public for winning against him by any means necessary while Izuku was still in shock and unable to even process what was happening.

“DIEEEE!” Bakugo screamed while he was in the air and in the position to release a two-handed explosion that would injure or even kill Izuku at point blank. But then All Might appeared at an impressive speed and blocked Bakugo's hands with his own hands in order to prevent Bakugo from firing up that explosion.

"Stop this nonsense now. Young Bakugo." All Might said without raising his voice, but it was clear that All Might was angry now.

"STEP ASIDE! I'M GOING TO KILL THAT sh*tY DEKU NOW! HOW DARE THAT BASTARD TO RUIN MY LIFE BY JUST EXISTING!" Bakugo shouted, unaware of the fact that his arguments were speedrunning his fall of grace in the eyes of the public. The previous words that Eraserhead shouted to the public to shame them from booing Bakugo were now rightfully ignored and said negative opinion was returning now at full force now.

“I see..., so I guess everyone in the world was wrong about you. You aren't a hero hopeful at all, you are just a villain in the making." All Might said with a cold and menacing voice. Bakugo was too enraged to care and he tried to release an explosion to get All Might out of his way, but All Might simply applied more force in his grip on Bakugo's hands to the point that he closed the exit of Bakugo's explosions with said force and then said explosion was released inside Bakugo's forearms that caused severe internal damage to the point that the entire part from his hands to the elbow had been deformed and burned to the point that his hands had suffered permanent damage that robbed him of the use of his quirk for the rest of his life.

"AHHHH!" Bakugo screamed in pain while All Might looked at the commentator booth in order to deliver a deadly glare that was aimed at certain teacher who now was too shocked about those revelations to even react properly.

After all of that, the sports festival was canceled, and while Bakugo was taken away by some medibots. Izuku was still stuck in the same place, he got really pale and his body was constantly trembling now.

"Young Midoriya?! Are you alright?!" All Might said while being concerned about his protege. the realization that Bakugo wasn't Izuku's rival as Eraserhead and Nezu suggested, but was his abuser for a long part of his life did paint an unfavorable picture of those past interactions in U.A. now that the truth about their past was known to everyone thanks to those videos.

"...!?" Izuku opened his mouth and tried to say something, but something was wrong. He wanted to talk, but no sound came from his mouth, and after multiple failures of not being able to mutter any single word, Izuku started to panic and trembled even more.

At that point, Midnight stepped in and used her quirk in a reluctant way to incapacitate Izuku before he could have the mother of all mental breakdowns now in front of everyone. As much as Midnight was a heroine whose theme was all about sex-appeal and mature topics. She was still a heroine and a teacher who had enough experience with people who were in high-stress situations to see that Izuku was not in a good headspace at all.

"Take Midoriya to a quiet space so he could rest alone and undisturbed. I'm afraid that being alongside anyone at this delicate moment could spell a disaster that we need to avoid at all costs" Midnight said. All Might silently appreciated her input in this situation and then gently carried Izuku to his home so he could rest in peace. Since Bakugo was in the infirmary at the moment, it was clear to all Might that those two shouldn't be together at all, and even less if Izuku needed to rest in a quiet place. That peace and quiet that Izuku needed was something that U.A. was going to lack for a while thanks to this scandal, but maybe that was their punishment for allowing villains as repugnant as Bakugo to think that he had what it takes to be a hero despite all those crimes that were shown in that video.

It was clear that a deep dive into both of those kids' pasts was needed to shed light on the situation and Nezu was now trying to get some of that monumental task done since the sports festival of all other years were canceled thanks to that scandal.

"..." Izuku woke up the next day after what happened and he was surprised to see that he was inside his bedroom. He tried to say something but the same result happened. there was something broken now inside Izuku that had taken away his ability to speak for some reason, the only sound that he could do was just simple grunts. Not even when his mom tried to talk to him got him to speak. She tried his best to inform him about what happened while he was unconscious, but Izuku could sense that she was keeping quiet about something.

Inko was sad to see that Izuku's suffering that he had endured in Aldera didn't had the decency to let him go in peace. She wasn't as clueless to not see that her son suffered in Aldera, but to see on live television a small fraction of Izuku's suffering in that school did brought her to tears.

The first video that was created by some of those ex-classmates of Izuku had already caused their creators to suffer the consequences of their villainous actions but those who created the second one were still free. The hacker who pulled up the second video was far more skilled than a kid with a hacking quirk that pulled up the first one.

Aldera school was closed up now for the moment pending an investigation that U.A. was spearheading and considering the clear negligence that the faculty of Aldera showed with Izuku in those recordings, then none of those bastards would get away with their crimes and the ones that they "encouraged" to their favored students to do in their building.

It was a sad thing to see how people now cared about Izuku's suffering as a child now that he had awakened a quirk that was powerful and flashy. Some of those neighbors of theirs who treated her son like he was less than human now were trying to pull a 180º and try to give their best wishes to him like they weren't part responsible for the suffering that Izuku endured.

"..." Izuku spent the whole day trying to mutter even a single word, but nothing came..., he was now aware of how the whole country had seen those moments that in a way Izuku wanted to forget since he got a quirk, he wanted to believe so badly that his life would change the moment that he had a quirk on his name, but that video did revealed that part of him that now Izuku would never escape from now. Maybe that shock combined with the reliving of those memories did made a number on his head and the only way for Izuku to cope with all that was to be rendered mute as a result of that.

But Izuku knew that it wasn't just the video that made him snap like that, this whole month Izuku had to deal with a repetition of what he was already used to doing in Aldera at what was supposed to be the most prestigious school. school in the world. A clearly indifferent teacher who hated him and was willing from the first moment to ruin his life with the constant threat of an expulsion that Izuku knew was not a motivational lie in his case, classmates who were under Bakugo's control in a week thanks to his new lapdog who tried to paint his villainous actions and attitudes as if he was just a tough guy with a hidden heart of gold.

Izuku had accepted in a subconscious way that U.A. was the same place that Aldera was to him and only held on to the hope of graduating as a hero which allowed him to just keep those traitorous thoughts in check, but now it was pointless. Izuku was now unable to see the difference between Aldera and U.A. and said realization just crushed his hopes. U.A. was Aldera and its faculty members had something against him like the homeroom teacher who hated his whole existence and the head nurse who said to his face that she wouldn't heal him anymore because she didn't wanted to waste her time on him. His new class and classmates in U.A. were just the same full of kids who bullied and belittled him with Bakugo being the main perpetrator of his suffering as it always had been for years, the only change was the faces of his classmates but the essence was still the same.

Izuku just stared at his school uniform the U.A. that was in a chair and was not surprised at all when he saw his previous school uniform of Aldera in its place for a couple of seconds before that illusion disappeared. Izuku went to bed too tired and uncaring about the fact that he had class tomorrow. He was too mentally exhausted to even care at this point.

The next day of class came and Izuku was right now sitting on the train to U.A. in order to relax for a while while he left the train to take him to the next station. He always woke up two hours earlier than the rest of the people in order to reach the school gates one hour before the other students. That was a bad habit that he picked up during his years in Aldera so he could at least have something good to say about that worthless place that was a silent witness of his misery in his past there.

That silence in those moments in which nobody of his classmates that bullied him when he was going to Aldera was a weird comfort that Izuku got from getting one hour early. He took that time to repeat to himself that everything would be fine while he was just mindlessly staring at that gate, a bizarre morning ritual that he needed to do to at least partially endure what always awaited there after the classes started.

Izuku abandoned that ritual when he started to go to U.A..., only to quickly fall back into it again after the first day of class with Eraserhead. He wanted so badly to deny that things were shaping up to be the same kind of hell on earth that izuku endured in Aldera, but he caved in and the next day he was already getting up early to repeat those words to motivate himself enough to not crumble on the spot and get on with his life, but then he saw that principal Nezu was walking out of U.A. main building and then he directed his look at him.

"Ohh..., young Midoriya, is good to see you..." Nezu said. it was clear to Izuku that this was not a coincidence.

"I would like to discuss something with you about the events that occurred the other day. Those two videos caught a lot of attention and started an investigation into Aldera and their actions in the past. So please, could you follow me to my office? I know that there is still one hour before classes start, but I would prefer to get this out of the way so you could get on with your school day with no interruptions" Nezu said. Izuku looked at the principal and weakly nodded at his words. He then followed Nezu to his office and it was clear that Nezu was not catching on to the fact that Izuku didn't reply to any of his attempts to start a conversation while they were on the way for some reason.

In the principal office, two teachers of U.A. were waiting there because they received a call from the principal to get there so they could discuss with Izuku now what would happen. A silent Eraserhead and a stoic All Might were in the office silently staring at each other. No words needed to be exchanged now because all that needed to be said had already been said the previous day.

Before the meeting that shattered Eraserhead's views on Izuku started, the man was still playing back in his mind those two videos that shed light on izuku's faulty control of his quirk and why he was so bad at keeping that destructive power in check.

To put it simply, Izuku had spent his whole life up to the entrance exam living as a quirkless person who had been beaten into the ground almost on a daily basis, and as Snipe said in that meeting, a lot of people turned into villainy out of spite after suffering not even a 10% of what Izuku had dealt with in Aldera. It was a testament to that mad determination that Izuku had that even with the odds unfairly stacked against him since his childhood, Izuku just pushed forward to his goal and never succumbed to the temptation of striking back at his abusers the moment that his quirk manifested like in some similar cases of late bloomers that retaliated with a deranged glee against those that hurt them in the past.

As much as the man disliked Izuku for his quirk and his obvious connection to All Might. That small glance at Izuku's past forced Eraserhead to realize that he was no better than the previous teachers that Izuku had in Aldera. So the only thing that he could do at the moment when Izuku entered the room with Nezu was to look at Izuku while holding his breath.

All Might was paying attention to Izuku during the whole meeting and it was clear that for some reason, Izuku was unable to get a single word out even if Nezu was deliberately giving Izuku an obvious chance to interject if Izuku wished.

"Midoriya? Is something wrong?" All Might decided to talk even if he was supposed to not interfere at the moment. Izuku then just sighed and shook his head to say no, that he was not fine at the moment in order to reply to All Might's question.

"Is that so? Could you please tell us why?" Nezu asked. izuku at this point decided to take a pencil and an empty notebook and quickly wrote something before giving it to All Might.

"I can't speak since I woke up yesterday. I spent all day yesterday trying to say something...,anything that came into my head but no sound came out of my mouth no matter how hard I tried..." All Might read out loud what Izuku wrote.

That shocked Nezu and even Eraserhead. Izuku then pulled his phone out and called his mother, he then left the phone on the table after putting the speakers on and then the voice of Izuku's mom came from the phone.

"Izuku!? Are you okay!?" the voice of clearly concerned Inko Midoriya echoed in the room.

"Miss Midoriya, I am the principal Nezu from U.A...., Izuku had written into a paper that he had been unable to mutter a single word since yesterday. Is that true?" Nezu said. This revelation caught him off guard and now he was trying to discern the truth about that statement.

"Yes..., when he woke up, he tried to open his mouth to say something, but no sound at all was emitted. he tried the whole day to communicate with me, but those efforts were useless in the end..." Inko said. The clear distress in her voice about the situation was something that wasn't faked at all.

"..." Eraserhead was now staring at Izuku, he looked at his eyes and saw that the light in them was almost extinguished, combined with that neutral expression that Izuku's face was sporting now, it was clear that the events of the sports festival had caused severe damage to Izuku mind to the point that had caused him to go completely mute at the moment.

"I see..., thank you for informing us...., have a nice day, Miss Midoriya" Nezu said.

"Thank you..., but I can't say the same for you people." Inko coldly said and then she ended the call. An uncomfortable silence settled in the room when the realization that Izuku's silence in this situation wasn't a deliberate choice on his part, but the consequences of the events of the sports festival got to Nezu and the others.

"It appears that U.A. had done a greater disservice to you than I realized..." Nezu said. Whatever cheerful disposition the principal had before entering the room had died now after the realization that his inaction and lack of involvement in the situation after leaving Eraserhead to deal with Izuku Midoriya as his first solution had led to this mess.

"..." Izuku simply closed his eyes and took a deep breath, there was not much that he could do at the moment to communicate with others and he was feeling drained after writing all of that.

"Now that I'm aware that you weren't able to even reply to what I said before. I will give you the time to write out whatever reply you feel is necessary to what I said before, even if taking that time means that you will have to skip class for today." Nezu said, he had spent almost 45 minutes talking about what would happen after the events of the sports festival and how things would change if Izuku had something to say, and now that Izuku's temporal muteness was something that he had discovered that was what prevented Izuku from replying to him, then Nezu felt that it would be fair to give Izuku the time to properly reply to all what he said before by allowing him to write it out said reply.

Izuku then pulled out his notebook and quickly wrote something before giving the thing to All Might. Nezu saw that as a way for izuku to say that he didn't have too much faith in him if he refused to let him read said reply.

"Very well..., if that is what you want I will write my grievances with what you said right now, but I want Eraserhead to get out of this room. I don't want to see him here at all." All Might said while reading Izuku's reply, there were a couple of lines that Izuku wrote just for him and All Might was sensible enough to keep that part for himself.

"What!?" Eraserhead said, clearly surprised over the fact that a student that he had treated like he was unworthy to be in U.A. and had shown that he had something against him didn't want to deal with him at all in this moment.

"I see. Eraserhead, please get out of this room at the moment. Classes are going to start anyway and you need to get ready for your first class of the day... even if is too clear that you aren't that interested in doing your supposed job with the students who aren't worthy of your attention." Nezu said. This change of attitude that Nezu had now with Eraserhead came not only after the meeting of the previous day that unfortunately forced him to reconsider how Eraserhead's methods failed Izuku and the other students of class 1-A of this year, but also after the meeting was interrupted when a hacker hijacked a whole news channel to show a video that contained multiple footage obtained trough less than legal means that showed Eraserhead unprofessionalism while he worked as a teacher of U.A..

Those constant expulsions of students in the first hour of the first day of the hero course without any real discernible reason aside from a set of standards that were torn apart in that video, to see how Eraserhead callously threw into the trash the files of those same students that wanted to expel without even bothering to look at them, to then show how he was capable of doing his supposed job to help to train hero students, but doing said job with a student that was not his responsibility at all while letting the students that were his responsibility during school hours to figure things out on their own while he focused on properly mentor that purple haired kid that fought izuku first in the sports festival.

That video caused a massive uproar in the public that was still reeling from what happened in the sports festival after those two videos about Izuku and Bakugo's past caused Bakugo to snap and act like the reckless villain that Bakugo proved himself to be. The public was not going to bother now to even try to see or hear any explanation from Eraserhead's actions and the HPSC was taking advantage of the situation to try to get under U.A.'s skin.

Nezu was stuck in a situation where he was forced to juggle multiple PR scandals while trying to come to an understanding with the most aggravated party in this mess. That unfortunately meant for Eraserhead that he was not going to get any preferential treatment from Nezu anymore and when was told to get out of the office, there was an unspoken threat behind that order.

“...” Eraserhead sadly looked at Izuku before leaving the room. it was clear to Eraserhead that his regrets about what he didn't do for Izuku and his desire to try to make amends for his actions weren't going to be listened to by Izuku. The damage that he did to Izuku's trust was too severe for izuku to even endure Eraserhead's presence if he was not forced to it.

The only sound that the man could hear as he walked away from the principal office was the one of Izuku writing something in that notebook of his to say his piece about what Nezu had told him. Eraserhead was now unable to even try to defend or excuse his actions. His lack of caring at doing his job alongside the consequences of his actions combined with how this situation was rapidly developing painted a bleak future for him, and there was nobody to blame for it except himself. Those thoughts resounded in his head as he walked to class 1-A while he was still able to do his job.

Izuku spent up to an hour writing his reply to Nezu's words and he stopped only when he was done. The principal of U.A. was trying his best to not lose his calm but he was seeing the way that izuku was moving his hand and wrist as he wrote and some of those movements made Nezu nervous.

When Izuku was done, he gave that notebook to All Might who decided to lend a hand to Izuku by willingly reading it so his words were heard. All Might also felt guilty for this situation and how his lack of sight and inability to properly gauge Bakugo's actions caused an untold amount of damage to Izuku. even if those two lines that izuku wrote that were only for him to see did in a way absolved him from any guilt in izuku's eyes. All Might still felt that he needed to do more to forgive himself for his failings.

“With all said and done, you gave me the hope and opportunity that I wanted for so long. Those months cleaning out the Dagoba beach from the trash that was piled there were the happiest of my life. Even if you did told me those words on the rooftop you at least treated me with a respect that nobody except my mother gave me. So even if you weren't able to see Bakugo for the villain that he truly is, I still forgive you for it because I knew at some point that Bakugo was a cancer in my life that would never go away without a fight..., and you fought that fight to protect me from him in the sports festival.” Those were the words that Izuku wrote first in the notebook that he gave to All Might. All might was moved in a way for those kinds words and he resolved to try to find a way to help Izuku even if he decided to return OFA to him, He owed Izuku that much.

So for the moment, All Might read that notebook and lend his voice to Izuku's words so Nezu could hear Izuku's arguments. From some kind of pushback to some of Nezu's arguments to a neutral stance in some of his decisions, All Might was the one that said all of this so izuku's words weren't brushed away by Nezu in this situation.

"So..., what do you truly want to do now? You aren't willing to stay in class 1-A but also refuse to be moved to class 1-B because in your words " I don't want another blond to bully me as Bakugo did in the past now that he is away from me". Do you have anything else in mind?" Nezu said. It was clear to him that Izuku had a lot to say about some of his decisions and they barely got eye to eye in a couple of things. To see that Izuku shook his head to his question made Nezu realize that they were now in a delicate position. Nezu needed an out that would give him more time to at least get Izuku's opinion to improve and then in a desperate moment, an idea came to his mind.

"You know..., I think we can reach a compromise at the moment if you are willing to hear my proposal." Nezu said. He waited until izuku nodded his head and then he decided to lay down his plan.

"You could be allowed to do as you please with certain boundaries during school hours while left on your own with no teacher or timetable to follow. You would be in a special class with only yourself as a student and if All Might wants to, he would be freed from his responsibilities as a teacher to support you. After all, his position as a teacher in U.A. was part of a deal that he made with me to get you trained..., since I failed to keep that part of the deal. I think that it would be for the best that U.A. took responsibility for that failure and tried to make some amends to you and All Might for our failure at keeping U.A.'s part of the deal with All Might." Nezu said.

"..." Izuku wrote one single word on an empty page in the notebook and after showing it to All Might, Izuku decided to show Nezu what he wrote. It was one word, and for his fortune, the one that he needed to see.

While Nezu was trying now to salvage the situation with Izuku and All Might. Eraserhead was now inside the classroom of 1-A conducting the first class of the week. What would be a normal day of class after a sports festival would consist of giving the students all the internships that their actions in the sports festival had granted them to then explain what was supposed to be the internship week was marred by those videos that not only revealed the past of Bakugo and Izuku but also caused Bakugo to act like a villain to the point that he was forcefully restrained by All Might.

Bakugo was now in a special jail for young villains while he was waiting for a hearing for his crimes. The one that was pushing that hearing was U.A. itself. One of the things that came with the paperwork to enter the hero course of U.A. was a waiver of rights that allowed U.A. in particular to send the students of the hero course to jail if needed without any possibility for an appeal in court to that lawful detainment. This was a remanet of the past when hero schools were something new and people were still wary of quirks and heroism. In multiple countries, some concessions had to be made in order to placate the public unrest, and that particular measure was one that became almost an universal one.

People found some comfort in the idea that if one of those kids who acted like a wild villain was instantly kicked out to jail with no bureaucracy getting in the way and it served as a deterrent in the past to keep the less heroic individuals in line. But times changed and with the whole society getting more obsessed with heroics, that particular privilege fell out of use..., but was still a legal right from every hero school in the world. After all, if they said and had proof that one of the kids who they were training as heroes was acting like a villain and wanted to get him out of there, then who would complain?

Bakugo has now the dubious honor of being the first person in 100 years who forced a hero school in Japan to use this particular privilege and Eraserhead had to explain to those kids that this, in fact, was a thing, so when Yaoyorozu tried to say anything about how unfair that waiver of rights was and that she would try to see her family lawyers about it, then Eraserhead told her flat out that if she had any grievances with that particular thing, then she should get out of the hero course.

Eraserhead did gauged his students' reactions to the events that happened, and aside from some that mocked Izuku for his weakness in the past like Mineta and Kaminari for example, and one particular student that was still in denial about the fact that Bakugo was a school bully of the worst kind, the rest had a more subdued reaction.

The first hour of the class ended with the students knowing that their offers for an internship with a hero would had to wait for a couple of days and a consternated Eraserhead that walked to the teachers' lounge in order to wait for what was Nezu's final judgment to the situation.

Eraserhead's hero career was over. The HPSC saw fit to erase his credentials as a hero and only because Nezu in an act of mercy relied on a technicality to allow him to still be a hero but with a catch. there were laws and exceptions that hadn't been updated at all thanks to the HPSC incompetence in that matter that gave an exception to U.A. about their teachers and the fact that they in particular could be heroes and teachers at the same time.

For simplicity's sake, a hero teacher from U.A. was still a hero even if the person focused only on teaching students and as long as their contract as teachers wasn't terminated, then they were heroes in the eyes of the law. A detail that the Madame President loathed to admit, but she had to let Eraserhead's license as a hero alone as it would be pointless to get with the whole kicking him out of the hero industry if he still had that particular exception on his side. But now Eraserhead was aware that it was as long as he was still a teacher from U.A. then he would still be a hero, and Nezu now told him to his face that he would be gauged as a teacher and not as a hero for his work performance and if Nezu wasn't satisfied, then he would let him go.

If he wanted to still be a hero, then he would need to be a teacher, something that he had barely bothered to do in years and only did a passable job in Nezu's option with Shinso Hitoshi, and Nezu had warned him that no more mercy would be given to him, and if Izuku wanted him out of U.A., then he would be fired without any question. So Eraserhead did something that was almost unbelievable for him to even consider, he prayed for a god to listen to him to give him an out. A similar situation that multiple of the kids that he had expelled for no reason had gone through when their lives were falling apart after that black mark ruined their lives, but no god heard his prayer.

"..." Izuku was now reading the new paperwork that Nezu had prepared for him after their meeting was over. Nezu forced Izuku to see Hound Dog after that meeting to at least be able to get a basic insight into Izuku's temporal fit of muteness, and Hound Dog delivered a rational explanation based on his knowledge. In his opinion, the shame that those videos caused to Izuku's psyche alongside some emotional hangups that he had been unable to properly deal with thanks to his horrible childhood had unfortunately emotionally overwhelmed Izuku in those moments, and he went mute as a way to cope with that traumatic experience.

Hound Dog didn't discard the possibility of a quick recovery, but he told Nezu and All Might that the only effective cure for his muteness was to let Izuku rebuild his inner confidence in himself and not let him be exposed to situations that could overwhelm him at the moment like those videos did. He made the point to say that they shouldn't treat Izuku like he was made of glass, but let him grow at his own pace and give him some support on the way. If Izuku was allowed to be comfortable in his skin while letting him grow as a person, then he may one day break that mental block that he had put on himself with no issue. that was Hound Dog's diagnosis and opinion on this subject after a 2 hours long "talk" with Izuku.

For the time being, Izuku was going to be on his own during class hours and would be allowed to use any facility as long as it was possible, one thing that Nezu had to lament was that Izuku had lost all faith in Recovery Girl after those videos alongside the realization of how U.A. was eerily similar at Aldera and that became a point of contention that almost costed Izuku's presence to U.A.

As Hound Dog said, Izuku had now associated Aldera with U.A. no thanks in part to their lack of actions and if Nezu wanted to keep izuku there, then he would have to show Izuku that U.A. was not like Aldera was to him in the past. Nezu had to break the mold to show Izuku that. His original idea of getting Izuku to be in his own class so he could work at his own pace was a good start, but he needed to do something else. But for the time being, the only thing that Nezu could do was to at least let izuku get his way in certain issues, for all that disservice that U.A. had done to him, izuku was still willing to compromise even if they were part of what caused his temporal muteness. So Nezu let him have in the whole not going to recovery girl and they worked out an alternative solution.

But the important question is if all those concessions would fix the damage done..., but as they say, only time would tell...

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

“...” Izuku was now at home after the school day was over. His standing in U.A. had been renegotiated with the principal and he more or less was fine with what he got out of this new arrangement. Sure, he couldn't get a free pass at everything, but he was more or less secure in the fact that he was now in a better position than before.

The first part of the deal was that he was going to be in a “special” class that only consisted of himself as the only member of said class. He was allowed to train and study at his own leisure and would only have to deal with the exams as a way to gauge his academic performance.

There were some smaller details and concesions that were part of his deal with Nezu that were equally important, but the first part about his new responsibilities as a student was the most relevant part for him. All Might, for his part, did decide in the end to still fill his role as a teacher of heroics class since he pretty much only had to do 4 classes a week and Izuku didn't had any problem with that.

All Might could still spend the rest of the school week helping izuku and it could be a way for All Might to keep an eye on the other students of Izuku's age just in case. That comment that Izuku made about being able to see his ex-classmates as the same scumbags that he had to deal with Aldera was a cause for concern for All Might and Nezu. To ease their concerns, Nezu told him that he would tell Eraserhead that he should warn his ex-classmates to leave him alone if he wanted. Izuku did told that it wouldn't be needed at the moment, but he would keep that in mind just in case.

Izuku had a lot on his plate, not only with his bout of temporal muteness but also with the fact that said muteness did in a way compromised him to the point that he had to concede on the fact that he was not going to do any internship this next week. there were mute heroes in the world, but those heroes had their ways of compensating for their mutism with their quirks. Like a certain blue-haired heroine from Europe who also performs musical concerts when she was not doing any hero job. The heroine Sonora: The Musical Virtuosa had found creative ways to use her music-based psychic quirk in creative ways to compensate for her muteness while making her a dangerous menace to any villain who thought that she was an easy target just because she was mute. From turning a simple rhythmical tapping of a wall into coded messages for the heroes in her vicinity so they could take a villain down from a blind spot that she created with some of her sounds created with her quirk, to just causing a whole villain group to surrender on the spot when she performed a recital with a violin when her song pulled the hearts strings of those villains into giving up. Sona Beoulve had proven that she may be unable to speak with her vocal cords, but she was more than qualified to be a heroine in Europe thanks to her skills and quick thinking that earned a following that was almost as big as the one that the most popular heroes had in the world.

But he had not such luck. OFA didn't gave him the means to communicate with others and he was restricted to either writing in a notebook what he wanted to say or relying on the text-to-speech that his phone had to talk, so izuku was on the moment going to be training in U.A. until he recovers his ability to talk.

Izuku then decided to call it a day and went to bed earlier in order to get some more rest that he was used to get. Izuku knew that things had changed now and he needed a well-rested mind to at least be able to tackle the situation and how those changes would affect him.

Inside the inner world of OFA. The vestiges were discussing the situation and how the emotional shock that took away Izuku's voice also blocked their recently established connection with Izuku at the same time. Their action of taking over Izuku to break that purple-haired boy's hold on his mind did allow them for the first time to interact even for one second with their current holder, but now that connection was lost at the moment.

This was a cause of concern because Izuku was now subconsciously blocking OFA power and those vestiges were starting to feel boxed in at the moment inside Izuku. Those vestiges were witness to how scrambled and chaotic izuku's mind became after that video was shown. With the echoes of multiple panicked thoughts that almost drowned them all until they suddenly went silent, in that moment, Izuku's voice disappeared and those thoughts were replaced with flying letters that collided with each other.

Said letters turned into voices only when All Might was reading what Izuku wrote during their meeting with Nezu and it wasn't Izuku's voice, it was All Might's voice echoing in that inner world. It was too early to panic and Hound Dog's words did shed a light of hope, but they were afraid of the fact that maybe the whole League of Villains and that creature that was the Nomu was one of AFO's machinations and that meant that All MIght was unable to get the job done all those years ago. The only thing that they could do now was to wait and hope for things to improve soon and that their hunch was wrong.

"..." Izuku woke up a little earlier than usual and since he had some time, he decided to just skip his morning ritual and move straight to the breakfast and a shower before getting out to U.A.

Izuku had a weird feeling that accompanied him while he was asleep. he felt that somehow, he was not alone for some reason. He felt that there were seven strange presences inside the room and after making sure that he was alone in his room a couple of times before actually going to bed, Izuku just let it go and tried to just sleep.

Izuku needed to not get himself that bent out of shape by things that could be caused by his own mind playing tricks on him and put that issue on hold. he had to go to U.A. and even if he had been granted some privileges, he wanted to at least fulfill his responsibilities as a student and that meant that he had to go to U.A. at the appropriate hour and not act like Bakugo would do if he was in his situation.

Maybe he was being a little hypocritical in this situation, but he hated the whole thing about being given preferential treatment whether for good or bad. Maybe that is why he was that willing to be more reasonable with Nezu's arrangement with him, but he had to at least admit that his situation was not normal and some concessions needed to be made for his sake. A fact that Nezu tried to do and failed when he put him under Eraserhead's care.

On paper, Eraserhead being the one who trained Izuku was a good idea thanks to the fact that his quirk could be used to prevent things from going wrong while izuku tried to learn how to use OFA, but this plan failed when taking Eraserhead's personality and actions into account. Eraserhead had shown a clear bias against Izuku and spent his whole time barely awake in class. A thing that is bad in itself, but when it was taken into account how he was willing to do his job for a kid who was not his responsibility made the situation worse.

Nezu's iffy understanding of humans and their feelings had caused his reasonable plan to fail by default. Nezu was able to miraculously bounce back of this mess, but it was clear now to the mammal that he had overestimated Eraserhead and his supposed competency, and now that he had to deal with the HPSC and the public scrutiny for not seeing the writing in the wall, then his patience with the man and his antics was over.

Nezu may have held himself back from putting Shinso Hitoshi through the same experience that Earserhead had put through other kids who had the misfortune of not being liked by the man, but Shinso didn't get away from this mess unscathed.

Shinso was denied the possibility of the hero course because Eraserhead liked him now that there was two spots open in the class 1-A. Nezu told him point blank that for far too long Eraserhead had destroyed other kids' chances to be heroes with no consequence, so it would be fair to all of them that the only kid that Eraserhead liked enough to the point of willingly doing his job if even if he was not his responsibility while ignoring those kids that were his responsibility was not going to get his way into the hero course.

Shinso was now told that he needed to impress Nezu himself enough to even get him to reconsider this decision, and in a clear show of childishness, Shinso complained about that being unfair. Nezu told him that he could either take it or leave it, so after storming out of the principal office while complaining about how this wasn't fair, Nezu simply shook his head in disappointment.

That kid hadn't any heroic mentality and was upset that his shortcut to heroics had been denied. The secret test that Nezu gave to Shinso to see if he was worthy of at least a fair chance had been failed by Shinso at this moment. But how far Shinso would try to prove that he wasn't worthy at all of being in U.A. with his actions? or would he have a realization of his failings and try to correct course after that epiphany? Whatever choice Shinso took in the end was now not a problem for Nezu at all, he would pay a close eye to see if Shinso dug deeper into his inadequacies or grew out of them. That was as far as he was willing to go.

The first thing that Izuku did after getting into U.A. a half hour earlier than the other students was to reach the principal's office to receive some information about the facilities of U.A. that he could use to train and what time frames he had to use them without clashing with another hero course.

Even if Nezu told him that as long as he didn't interfered with the other courses then he could be in any place, Izuku preferred to just know how and where he could be in any given training ground. He "told" Nezu that he would make an exception for All Might classes, but that he would prefer to not get too much in the way of the other courses if he could help it. Nezu accepted his reasoning and gave him a look at the schedule for all the training grounds and the time that other classes had allotted for Izuku to know.

So Izuku knew that today he had up to three hours to train in the Ground Omega undisturbed and Izuku decided that maybe a simple trek through the woods of Ground Omega would help him to relax a little while he trained there. So he spent those hours running as fast as he could through the forest to reach one of the ends to then return to the entrance and then rise and repeat, and during one of his breaks, Izuku started to remember something about his childhood.

A forest, a river, and himself trying to..., that day came to his mind and while trying to not think about Bakugo, he focused his mind on the river in his mind, the water flowed through it gently, and for some reason, that detail stuck to his mind.

"Flowing..., flowing..., water gently flowing through the river undisturbed..." Izuku thought. There was something in that particular train of thought that Izuku felt that holded an important answer for him.

Izuku then had a wild idea in his mind and activated OFA and let the power wash over him like it was water going through a river, he visualized a small stream of water going gently through a river while he activated OFA, and when he stopped with his mental exercise, he felt how OFA was active and going trough his body but was not hurting him.

He looked at his arms and saw how some veins on his arms were glowing with light and small sparks of energy were going out of his body. He controlled his breath and saw how that light slowed down and then the intensity of his power was waning until he suppressed OFA on his own. With that feeling still fresh on his mind, Izuku called OFA power again, but this time he decided to test if he could hold onto that power while he moved. He then spent two hours trying to do what he did at the beginning of the day, but he was happy.

Izuku had made a breakthrough with OFA and had discovered a way to use a small percentage of the power that OFA had without any real backlash aside from the fact that he was still limited to a mere 7% after all that and he still had trouble with containing that much power unless he was in a relaxed state of mind, that caused izuku to lost the ability to try to attack because the moment that he tried to just punch a tree to test if he could hold it in his power while he tried to attack something, then all that power dissipated in an instant, he could in exchange move a little bit faster and even sense his surroundings with ease at a first glance as long as he had that low output active.

Izuku felt that he was starting to grasp something and he decided for the time being to call this development as OFA: Flow. This may be a silly thing, but considering that he had been struggling with OFA since he got it, to reach this kind of progress did got him excited despite the fact that Izuku was still limited in his usage of OFA.

Izuku couldn't wait to show All Might how much progress he had made now.

"Did you felt that?" A woman who was inside the inner world of OFA said to the group.

"Yes..., Izuku had not only used OFA, but also had called forward the power of Gear Shift and Danger Sense at the same time in a restrained capacity..., but he called those quirks on his own" A man with a scar in one eye said. He was the vestige of Danger Sense and was surprised but relieved to see that Izuku didn't forsaken the power of OFA and their connection in a way after that emotional breakdown.

"How can that be possible? I believe that I made my stance clear about me not leading a hand to that kid before, and now he gets a free pass to my quirk?" the second vestige said, he was less upset than surprised and confused at that.

"Maybe the way that he envisioned himself using OFA's power in that particular way connected his mind with your quirks? I would like to remind you all that we are now in uncharted territory with OFA and the ability to use the quirks of past users that was not OFA." a man with a trenchcoat said.

"I hate to admit it, but that could be an explanation, if that is the case then maybe our attempts to not let Izuku use our quirks may be pointless..." A man who was the subordinate of the second vestige said. he alongside his boss didn't had a good opinion of Izuku and refused to collaborate with the others, but now it appeared that their refusal to cooperate was useless.

"Maybe this is a good thing..., after all. If Izuku is capable of developing a way to use OFA power that allows him to quickly build back some of his confidence then we may be able to interact with Izuku without any restraint. I believe that if Izuku recovers his ability to speak, then this mental block of his that is keeping us trapped would be lifted" A white-haired man said. He was one of the few who had far more empathy for Izuku's plight and at some point, he could understand that feeling of helplessness that Izuku had to deal with in his past.

"...fine, it's not really that much of an issue if that kid can get his sh*t together faster this way." the second vestige said and then he let the issue drop. The vestiges were seeing this small development as a positive thing and just waited for izuku to get over his mental block.

One day..., Izuku was able to figure out something in one day while he was allowed to be in a situation in which he could grow and learn on his own without anything that could interfere or sabotage him in the process. That realization made Nezu realize a couple of things about how the situation developed in such way was his fault.

Izuku had a impressive potential to develop that had been clearly ignored and supressed by society thanks to the social prejudice that he suffered in the past as a quirkless combined with Aldera's decision to benefit Bakugo at the cost of other students.

Now that Nezu was busy investigating their shared past in Aldera and now was able to get his hands on things like their academic result there and it was clear to Nezu that both their results were doctorated if he took U.A. entrance writing test as a comparison. Bekugo was not that smart to the point of getting the best score with ease in Aldera and Izuku wasn't as dumb as the results that he got in Aldera could lead anyone to believe.

The clear difference between Izuku's abysmal test scores in Aldera in comparison of the respectable position of the 9th best score in the entrance exam was proof of that sabotage from Nezu's point of view. A student that had such a low average score as Izuku had in Aldera shouldn't have obtained that high score at all and there was no chance for a participant in the entrance test to cheat at all. That added another thing to the case against Aldera that U.A. was spearheading now. the faculty of that school alongside a couple of students were also in jail like Bakugo was but since they weren't tried as heroes or villains, then these individuals were in a normal prison.

Nezu was now multitasking between keeping his investigation of Aldera going on and fulfilling his now increased duties as U.A. principal thanks to the fact that he had to now stalk like a hawk the actions of Eraserhead and Shinso Hitoshi to make sure that they behaved. At least Izuku's discovery of one way to use OFA painlessly even with those seatbacks was a piece of positive news to Nezu. The recording about how Izuku sparred with Ectoplasm in order to test the limitations of his new technique that he called Flow and how he got it figured out in just one training season was a light of hope in this situation.

OFA: Flow was how Izuku called the action of letting a small percentage of OFA's power flow through his body like it was water going through the river, hence the name. In exchange for a temporal loss of the ability to attack if he wanted to keep Flow active, Izuku's movement speed, senses, and reflexes were enhanced to the point that Izuku gained something akin to the ability to predict his enemies' attacks in his surroundings almost before they could be done to him.

Ectoplasm and his clones were the sparring partners that allowed Izuku to test his theories about Flow and how it worked. izuku's body in this state moved on its own before any hit could hit its mark on Izuku and Izuku was almost dancing his way out of any of those hits without Izuku having to think about it.

The clear weakness of Flow was that Izuku was forced into the rhythm created by his own breath and couldn't break out of it, if Izuku stopped breathing in and out with that rhythm, then he lost his focus and returned to normal. but considering that in this way Izuku didn't hurt himself in the process when using OFA, then this was an acceptable trade-off that could be worked upon to iron it out.

Nezu still was not going to allow Izuku to go into an internship with a hero despite that meteoric progress giving Nezu and All Might hope. Izuku didn't receive any offers even if the hero community was more understanding about Izuku's quirk issues thanks to that scandal that revealed Izuku's past quirkless status and Izuku himself saw reason in Nezu's concerns and agreed with this decision. So when All Might suggested the idea of letting one of his past mentors to help Izuku with OFA that was in the know of OFA truth, then Nezu was a little reluctant to allow it.

In the end, Izuku decided to give it a try because as long as it wasn't an internship, then Izuku was more willing to try it. His concerns about his lack of capability to communicate with others were still weighing on his head. so as long as he was sure that he was not going to do any hero job, then Izuku worries could be placated. With that decision from Izuku's part made and Nezu deciding that as long as it was only to train then it was fine. All Might summoned as much courage as he could muster and then called Gran Torino to ask if he was willing to help.

Fate has a sense of humor and no one in the room was aware of what would happen in the next week, but Izuku still was only two days in his new position in U.A. trying to adapt as best he could in his situation.

Izuku was now trying to keep some distance from his ex-classmates while he was sharing the same training ground with them while it was the heroic class that All Might was conducting at the moment. Izuku was focusing now on meditating while he had Flow activated so he could increase the output of it a little in order to train his body endurance at a higher output. the thing about Flow was that as long as he was not moving, he could theoretically call a higher percent of OFA's power than he could handle at the moment if he wished, but trying to move a single muscle in that state was like trying to swim up a waterfall from the bottom to the top.

A little bit of creative thinking alongside the inspiration that he got when he thought about the waterfall comparison made Izuku realize that he could meditate with Flow activated at a little higher percentage that he could use safely in order to let his body get accustomed to that percentage of power, the progress done this way was quite small and by the end of the week, he went from 7% to 9% but he got that in four days without stressing his body more that necessary.

His clear mistrust of Recovery Girl alongside the fact that he would have to interrupt his training to go to a hero hospital to heal up made Izuku realize that he needed to take things at a proper pace. This situation was now uncharted territory for him and Izuku needed to make slower but firmer steps in order to progress. Izuku had a strange hunch that made him believe that his subconscious was in a way dictating the way of how he could use OFA and Izuku believed that he needed to find a balance between his wants and needs.

Maybe his quirk was a plaything for his mind and his subconscious desires were preventing him from fully tapping into OFA power so he couldn't hurt himself like he did in the past. OFA: Flow clear focus on evasion and speed at the cost of fighting back was something that Izuku unfortunately felt attuned with at the moment.

Those videos showing his weakness in the past to almost the entire world shamed Izuku to his core to the point that he wouldn't be able to lie at all if someone asked him if he wanted to run away from everything and be away from the rest of society until the end of his life, but that was not a way that Izuku wanted to live.

This shame..., this feeling of helplessness and fear that were settled in and were partly dictating his life now..., Izuku needed to find a way to fight back against them to reclaim control of his life, to recover his voice even. but his trials and tribulations before he could be in a position to fully heal for his trauma was still far away...

"..." Izuku did reached the place where that hero lived and then he knocked on the door. The sound of the door lock being removed and then being opened was the first welcoming sign that he received from the retired hero.

"You came a little earlier that expected..., but that is not that much of a trouble. Please, come in." the hero said. izuku sensed in a way that the man was gauging him for some reason, but he pushed those thoughts aside and just entered the man's home.

The hero looked at the dossier on a table that he received from U.A. and he decided that a little communication exercise would be good. Gran Torino was aware of Izuku's muteness and how the reason that he was allowed in the end to go to him at All Might's request was that he promised to keep Izuku out of any hero activity at the moment, but the man considered that trying to establish a proper connection with Izuku was a way to help in this situation.

"I received a dossier that contained a lot of information that Nezu considered "relevant" for me to know, so I think that I am somewhat aware of what you can do at the moment, but would you indulge a little and tell me with your own words what this Flow thing is? Don't worry, I will give you the time to think and write that answer." The hero said. he had some experience as a teacher and he knew that certain people required different methods to be properly dealt with to get the best results, attempting to treat Izuku like what he did to Toshinori was a foolish idea and would cause more harm than good.

Toshinori was more or less capable of taking the harsh training that he put him through in the past with not much trouble because he was already built up for it and time was of the essence in those moments. Izuku was barely prepared for his responsibilities and had a clear bad hand dealt in life that now had decided to screw him over even more, the hero did saw that video during the sports festival and it was clear that U.A. standards of hiring teachers when down the drain after his time there. izuku was in a desperate need in those moments of a guiding hand that could help him, not an incompetent teacher who relied on threats of expulsions and had a grudge against him to be able to succeed.

So Gran Torino decided that the most sensible approach to this situation was to be the helping hand that Izuku needed. The description of what that Flow thing that he used to safely wield OFA's power showed that izuku had potential, a potential foolishly ignored by U.A. in the past.

"..." Izuku pulled out a notebook and then he decided to try to explain the best he could about how Flow worked for him. The hero patiently waited for Izuku to finish his writing and then he received that notebook with Izuku's written explanation.

Gran Torino then took Izuku to a room so they could spar and the only sound that could be heard was the one that his quirk did. the old hero did decided to test on his own how Flow worked and the man was flying around the room with his quirk at diferent speeds in order to gauge izuku's progress. It appeared that his one week of training with Flow did helped Izuku to safely dodge the attacks that the hero was soft balling at the moment. Gran Torino was now testing the waters in this first training session, he made the point to tell izuku that he would warn him about his attack and how fast he would go at the moment in order to let Izuku prepare himself at the moment.

The hero's efforts paid off when he was able to get a proper insight into Flow's limitations. Gran Torino had to get serious to push Izuku and then it went all downhill for Izuku. Preventing Izuku from keeping a steady rhythm with his breath was what allowed the hero to push through Flow and that gave the man an idea of a training plan for Izuku this week.

"Okay, Midoriya. after that training session. I think that I know what we are going to work with at the moment." The hero said after he decided to put and end to this sparring match. Izuku just waited for the man to continue his speach.

"Your "Flow" is quite impressive and considering that you only discovered but also learned how to use it in one week, then the flaws that I can see now are far more understandable" Gran Torino said. He was genuine when he praised Izuku's ingenuity. To use OFA power evenly at a low output to prevent any form of self-harm was a good idea, an idea that izuku had to come to his own when he was supposed to have competent teachers that were in U.A. to help him with the control issues that were apparent and documented for what All Might told him.

Gran Torino didn't had too much issue with students who were capable of progressing on their own, but in Izuku's case, it was clear that he wasn't in an environment that allowed him to develop in any way or form. His previous homeroom teacher was too incompetent to bother to be a "caring" teacher unless that man liked you enough, and that combined with the pressure that two blonde pests that were in the hero course applied to izuku either in class or in the few times that he had free inside of U.A. prevented Izuku from having time to even stop and think things through, it was a miracle that Izuku didn't snap from all that, but considering how in those videos showed that izuku was to used to be treated like he wasn't worthy of existing, then maybe all that misery that he endured before was just business as usual for him.

Gran Torino was now forced to strike a delicate balance between pushing Izuku hard enough so he could develop without going overboard to prevent Izuku from getting his footing and messing with his injured mind. He had a hunch that made him think that even in this pitiful state, Izuku was not as frail as another person could be in his situation, but Gran Torino wanted to make sure that he could build Izuku up, not tearing him down like his life already did to him before.

So he explained his training plan to Izuku, which would consist of helping him to iron out the clear weakness that Gran Torino found when they spared. Izuku was a little too slow to react to sudden changes and even if Gran Torino was able to exploit that flaw thanks to his quirk and fighting style, he considered that particular delay in his reaction speed to sudden changes a dangerous thing that could leave Izuku defenseless in the worst moment possible.

Izuku listened to the man while still being a little wary of him, his ability to trust any kind of mentor that he could have now had been severely damaged and the only thing that prevented All Might from getting in that category was that Izuku knew that All Might actually cared about him on a personal level despite his faults as a teacher in U.A.

The incident that he had with his ex-classmates when some of them hounded him in Ground Omega when they were in the same area came to his mind. Two of his most pathetic ex-classmates saw fit to mock him and belittle him while they believed that they were alone and the faces of pure shock and surprise that Kaminari and Mineta had when All Might's voice came from the observation tower to tell them that they were going to had a stern talk about their unheroic behavior made Izuku's day.

That repulsive leech and parasite that was Mineta believed that he could mock him and try to bully him without any reprisal just because he and the other students of 1-A were aware that Izuku had been rendered mute after the Sports Festival and also that there was nothing that could catch him in the act in Ground Omega. There may not be any cameras on the ground, but there were multiple flying drones that were equipped with cameras that could record images and sound.

The mere realization that someone who was supposed to be as smart as Mineta boasted that he was while he taunted Izuku didn't figure that out was that mind-numbing that Izuku didn't bother to be upset at those insults that those two threw at him.

Mineta was promptly expelled from U.A. and the dick-measuring contest that his uncle who was one of the school's greatest investors had with Nezu when he tried to coerce Nezu to reconsider his decision or he would pull the money that he invested out of U.A. coffers ended with Mineta's whole family being torn to shreds. Nezu was now after the events of the Sports Festival in a foul mood for those that wanted to f*ck around with him now and the Mineta family became a target for Nezu's wrath.

Nezu took a sad*stic glee in pulling their shady dealings out for the public to know and then ended with a public humiliation that destroyed the heroic aspirations that Mineta had. The heroic community already was calling foul on the way that he passed the first round of the sports festival by latching himself on another student's back to get a good place in the race and now that his less-than-savory personality traits were shown to the public, then it was almost a unanimous decision to not allow Minoru Mineta to be a hero student anymore. Denki Kaminari did barely avoided any scrutiny of that scandal that the Mineta family caused and he was demoted to the general course as punishment. A lot of people found it a little hypocritical that a kid who had his quirk all his life and still fried his own brains while trying to insult someone for his lack of control with his quirk when izuku had barely a couple of months to get things figured out in comparison to him that had all his life and barely got his power from not backfiring on him.

The heroic community and some other individuals had their own opinions on the subject and how things went, but they had nothing to do with Izuku...yet.

A hero who coveted the spot of number one hero in Japan was now in the office that was in his agency, contemplating the situation while felling upset about how his plans were ruined when his masterpiece decided to take an unheroic action to win the fight against that kid.

His masterpiece's less than stellar decision alongside the comparison that the rest of the public made to that boy with his masterpiece painted Shoto in a bad light. Endeavor was uncaring about Izuku's plight, but the man was able to understand that U.A. had seriously bouched this situation for a long time.

Eraserhead's clear disregard for his job unless you had a "villainous" quirk did made people understand that none of the students of class 1-A had a proper mentor to help them to correct course if needed and that aggravated U.A. situation at the moment.

Izuku Midoriya got a pass from the hero community for his choice of holding back his quirk considering his circ*mstances, but his masterpiece was not so lucky. Shoto's spiteful oath of never using his fire hadn't earned any accolades in the hero community that lambasted him as someone who was half-assing his way to heroism and that forced Shoto to either go with him or not do any internship at all.

"Well Shoto, I would say that your little rebellion against me is now bearing fruit..., but you aren't getting what you wanted" Endeavor said to his son while both were on a training ground in Endeavor's agency.

“...”

"The public and the hero community are criticizing you because you are holding back when you don't have any reason to. Your "excuse" is not taken kindly to their eyes now that Midoriya's issues are known. For them, you don't have any real justification to hold back at all, your fire doesn't hurt you, in fact, it helps you to use your full potential but your stubborn refusal to go all out with your quirk out of spite at me is not making you any favors." The hero said while he broke it down to Shoto to understand how things are going down for him now.

"So..., you are going to use your fire by the end of this week, or I will pull you out from the hero course." Endeavor said, that ultimatum did make Shoto to react.

"What!?" Shoto almost shouted in surprise and indignation.

"As you heard. You already shamed yourself and my name enough with this selfish desire of yours. So you either grow out of it now, or I will pull you out of the hero course, you will not be a stain on my legacy if you wish to continue to embarrass me with your pettiness." the hero coldly said to Shoto Todoroki while he walked away from the training room so shoto could grasp the gravity of the situation now.

Shoto Todoroki stood alone in that training ground while cursing his luck and how his action of taking advantage of the situation like Endeavor said multiple times in the past had put him in this situation.

Another hero who was in his agency resting was constantly seething at the fact that Izuku had "taken away" OFA from Mirio. The fact that OFA was never his to give and that he had no voice or business in making that choice was ignored in his head.

To Sir Nighteye, Izuku was a usurper who had taken what he had decided that belonged to Mirio Togata and that was all that he needed to know. He scoffed at the notion that Izuku was a worthy successor to All Might and those videos were the final proof that solidified his biased opinion.

Those videos that showed Izuku at the lowest point of his life didn't made Izuku look powerful for enduring all that misery in life without falling into villainy, those videos were proof that Izuku was unworthy of carrying OFA in his opinion. All Might's replacement has to be almost as pristine and immaculate as All Might is, those videos painted an image of weakness that Sir Nighteye refused to allow to stain All Might heroic legacy.

But it was clear that All Might and U.A. refused to listen to reason and told him point blank that he was not going to get near izuku unless he wanted to get in trouble. He then instructed Mirio to pay an ear to All Might and Nezu's talks with Izuku in order to recopilate information about izuku so he could "prepare an internship" that would amount to browbeating izuku into giving OFA willingly to Mirio in Sir Nigtheye's mind. Unfortunately for the man, the moment that Mirio told him that Izuku was starting to properly get a handle on OFA power from what he could hear from those meetings was the moment that he panicked.

In his mind, if Izuku was capable of getting a confident grasp on OFA's power, then his chances to use the argument that his body couldn't withstand the power could fall on deaf ears. So with his head clouded by unrighteous indignation. Sir Nighteye decided to play one last card that he had at his disposal. it was a risky gamble, but with his sights clouded by his emotions, then Sir Nigtheye was unable to see that his plan born of anger and desperation was a catastrophic mess that only a mad gambler would even consider at all.

The tantalizing prize of getting Izuku to give OFA to Mirio was too tempting to pass on even if Sir Nighteye knew that at the moment, Izuku was training with Gran Torino, he just assumed that Gran Torino would agreed with his vision, and then he decided to prepare a meeting that would happen three days after the beginning of the internship week in U.A.

Stain, the hero killer was a man who had his own code of heroism that unfortunately made him kill people that didn't fit his definition of heroism. if you weren't heroic enough in his eyes, then you didn't deserve to live.

The man would normally ignore the news about the sports festival because he had no time to pay attention to those brats. but this time, he did. The story about Izuku Midoriya and how that kid literally willed himself to become a hero even if society beated him like a dog on a daily basis did confused the man in a way.

That kid's past made him unimpressive in the hero killer's eyes, but Stain could feel that the kid possessed an unyielding will that pushed him forward despite the constant setbacks that he had endured in the past. That made the hero killer think that maybe that kid had what it takes if he was able to recover from his now publicly known muteness.

The press of Japan hounded izuku for a couple of days when he was near the gates of U.A. and when it was clear that izuku was not going, one unpleasant journalist insulted Izuku by calling him a mute freak, and that moment, Izuku just nodded at the man words. Those noisy reporters and journalists went silent and then izuku decided to write a note that he gave to a blue-skinned woman who was there as well. She read that note and then the people of Japan knew how much those events messed with Izuku to the point that he just lost his voice as a result of that public humiliation.

Stain then also focused on the other "protagonist" of that event at the Sports Festival. Katsuki Bakugo and Shinso Hitoshi, and with those two, he had a more definite opinion. Stain wanted to kill both. Bakugo was too obvious why, but in Shinso's case, the third video that was an exposé on Eraserhead's "professionalism" and did showed not only the privileges that he received from Eraserhead but also how he was an unpleasant person who was unfit to be a hero at all.

For as much as Shinso complained about how unfair society was to people like him. His attitude and how he treated other people showed a lack of heroic spirits in Stain's eyes that made him a target for his wrath. Stain decided that he was going to step away from Hosu to search for that kid to nip bud before he could even succeded in his goal of becoming a hero.

Since Bakugo was already jailed in Tartarus after the trial that U.A. spearheaded against Aldera also added more fuel to that fire, in the end. The proud and boastful brat who visualized himself as the next All Might was sentenced to a life sentence in Tartarus with no chance of getting out. His arms were severely injured when All Might decided to step in to protect Izuku and he would live there until his last days locked up there for his villainous actions and crimes, crimes that he increased on the day of the trial when in a clear show of "remorse", Bakugo decided to spew multiple death threats to all the people that was there in his usual way to talk to others that were inferior to him, his threats that he would ruin the lives of those that were judging him when he became a hero and the anger that he shouted those threats were just the final nail in his coffin. Mitsuki Bakugo was wordlessly crying at the sight of how her lack of discipline when raising her son had led to this moment. Masaru Bakugo was unable to look up when the final judgment was given and then his son was taken away to Tartarus for the rest of his life.

With that resolution made in his mind, Stain took advantage of the information that those videos gave about Shinso to prepare a plan to get rid of that bad seed that Shinso was. Stain was armed with the knowledge about how Shinso's quirk worked and that gave Stain an idea about how he could deal with him.

He just hoped that this didn't took him that much time, he had a meeting with a group of villains that wanted to talk with him at the end of the week and even if he hadn't that much hope in those villains, he would at least gauge them to see if he decided to just kill them to clean up the streets a little.

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Izuku was in that training room with Gran Torino at the moment, 4 days had passed since Izuku went there and the hero had proved to be a competent and understanding person. As much as Gran Torino found flaws in his Flow technique and his fighting stance, he had a more respectful tone with him and came always up with possible solutions to said flaws that he had over just telling him to figure it out on his own.

Izuku felt a little bummed out when a flaw was pointed out, but the fact that he was given a proper instruction to improve in order to compensate said flaws made Izuku to be less upset at the situation. He was being treated like a normal person and that made him happy. Now the same training exercise that Izuku had been doing in the past days was the only thing on his mind. Gran Torino used his quirk to bounce in the room with the intention of grabbing him and Izuku had to use flow to dodge those attempts.

It was too oblivious that Izuku ended up falling in the end, but Gran Torino didn't berated him for his failure and always made the point to say that Izuku was constantly getting better each time and at some point, Izuku was able to get the flaw that concerned Gran Torino the most ironed out. Izuku was able to not fall for any fake outs or sudden changes of direction that Gran Torino did during the exercise and Izuku was starting to get a better handle on Flow to the point that he was reaching a 15% output now for extended periods of time without exhausting himself quickly.

Ectoplasm was a good sparring partner for Izuku to work his situational awareness, but to truly push Izuku to the limit when using Flow, his opponent had to be fast enough to force him into a constant defensive posture so he could tire himself out of the stress that Flow did to his body.

Gran Torino's suggestion? To turn around that battle of attrition back to those kinds of people with slow yet methodic evasive maneuvers that didn't tire izuku much while forcing those speedsters to make the extra effort instead. This method didn't work against the hero, but Izuku was not surprised. The retired hero was far more accustomed to battle and not even his old age and retirement dulled him that much. izuku was taking advantage of the old hero experience while the man was making sure that Izuku was able to learn those lessons that he could teach him.

Gran Torino was not a miracle worker and was unable to help izuku to fully unlock OFA power, but Izuku was getting way more for what he bargained for and to be given insight and proper teaching to develop as fast as Izuku was capable was the thing that Izuku needed at the moment.

Izuku didn't want to think that badly about the U.A.'s faculty, but the few sparring sessions that he had with a couple of teachers the past week made Izuku realize that they were walking on eggshells around him, maybe that was because the incident was still a little too fresh in their minds, but his faith in U.A. was already waining a little before the sports festival after dealing with Eraserhead for only one week.

Izuku didn't shared the rest of his ex-classmates opinions after the man fought back against the League of Villains in the USJ, but he kept that for himself. Eraserhead didn't show that he actually cared about them when he fought the villains, that was his job as a hero, and if he needed proof of said lack of care for him and his ex-classmates, he just needed to look at how the man was that willing to skip his nap time during the day to coach Shinso Hitoshi, those same naps that used to take in front of them during class and that he threatened them with expulsion if they bothered enough to wake him up.

That man already was making Izuku feel that he was in Aldera again with his indifference and expulsions threats and one action of almost dying was not going to make him like the man when the man made the point of being an unpleasant dick to him and the others studnets of his class. So after their morning training session, Gran Torino told him that they were going to meet a certain hero who wanted to meet with them both, Izuku and Gran Torino took a train to take them both to that man's agency that was a couple of hours from Gran Torino's home.

Izuku was able to pick from Gran Torino's posture and body movements that there was some reluctance on his part about this meeting and then he saw how Gran Torino decided to explain to him what was going on and clued him in about Sir Nighteye and how that man didn't took kindly the fact that izuku ended getting OFA instead of his personal apprentice that he groomed for that role.

Izuku appreciated the honesty and the whole being warned about a potential hero who hated his guts as others did in the past. Gran Torino did told him that he was going to be at his side because there was no way that a man as stubborn as Sir Nighteye is changed that quickly of opinion. There was something going on and Gran Torino was going there to see what the man's deal was, and considering that Izuku did "told" Gran Torino that he could sense a clear hostile intent from the building at his person when both reached the entrance of the man's agency, at that point the gig was up and Gran Torino decided to politely tell the man that he should deal with the fact that All Might made his own decision and that OFA was never his to give, and that he was not going to neither gatekeep OFA nor play the role of the kingmaker with it.

Gran Torino found practical that strange ability that came out of nowhere that allowed Izuku to sense hostility in a nearby radius of him when he activated Flow. That was Danger Sense now starting to reach Izuku's mind and considering that mental block that Izuku had at the moment was getting a little in the way, then Danger Sense was being unknowingly toned down by Izuku's subconcious.

The theoretical powering up that OFA did to the quirks inside of it should have caused Izuku to have small headaches when he triggered Danger Sense by the vestiges estimations but he just felt a small tingling sensation in his head, Izuku should also feel a severe backlash after using Gear Shift and he instead was tiring himself a little faster when using Flow. The vestiges weren't sure if this was a good or a bad thing, but they were just silently looking at the situation while waiting for izuku's psyche to improve.

While that was happening, a purple-haired boy who was still sulking about how life was unfair was now trapped in an alleyway with Stain, a person with common sense would have run as fast as they could to try to survive against that menace but Shinso didn't subscribe to what common sense dictated at the moment thanks to his wounded pride and a deluded belief that he could take down Stain on his own with his quirk alone. When Shinso saw how Stain despite his know temper didn't took the bait when he taunted the hero killer, a normal person would figure out that this was the moment that they had run out of options, but Shinso decided to go Plus Ultra in the worst time possible.

The fact that the idea of capturing Stain despite being a simple student would give him enough clout in the hero community to force Nezu to accept him in the hero course blinded him to the reality that he was way over his head in this situation. Shinso lowered his guard with the intention to reach the scarf that Eraserhead gave him to learn and perform Eraserhead distinctive fighting style that was in his backpack, but Stain took that chance to give Shinso a reality check on this situation.

Stain pulled one of his knives and just got in Shinso's face in order to slice Shinso's neck, that blade cut through skin and muscle and then he severed his vocal cords. Shinso put his hands to his throat to try to stop the bleeding, but that left him even more defenseless, only when Stain was able to see the desperation in Shinso's eyes, only then did he decide to speak.

"You are a pathetic individual beyond any doubt." Stain said, he looked with his killing intent directed at Shinso that felt his body to lock up in fear.

"You don't have any real combat skills and you tried to win your fight by using your quirk. A quirk that now is public knowledge to all of Japan and frankly, is almost idiotic the way that you believed that it was a good idea to let the world know about your quirk.” Stain's words were rubbing salt into Shinso's wounds at the moment. the hero killer found out that Eraserhead's apprentice who moved the man to the point of wanting to personally put the effort to train Shinso was a waste of effort.

"You are a scrawny and unathletic boy and you lack any real combat ability that does not rely in your easy-to-counter quirk and the scarf that is in your backpack. How the hell do you believed that you had what it takes to stop me when not answering your childish insults makes you defenseless against an opponent willing to hurt you?" Stain said, he rummaged through Shinso's backpack and then he pulled out that infamous scarf that Eraserhead used to fight. The boy's decision to try to pull that thing in front of him cost Shinso his vocal cords when Stain saw a clear opportunity to strike. He expected that for someone whom Eraserhead saw fit to teach would have almost the combat instincts to at least avoid being defeated with ease in one second, but it appeared That Shinso was just lucky to be liked by a man who completely disregarded those infamous standards that he had with other kids to take Shinso under his wing and train him to be a hero.

"You are just pathetic, the villains in Japan knows about your quirk now and anyone with more than two brain cells would close their mouths when seeing you, your participation in the sports festival had shown to the world your quirk and it's limitations, you never had a real chance to be a hero like you beloved mentor is because your quirk can't even the playing field like Erasure can." Stain said, he then trew that worthless scarf to Shinso and then turned his back to get out of that alleway.

"I had the intention to kill you..., but I changed my mind. You are too pathetic to even be worth killing, so instead of taking your life..., I will rob you of your ability to use your quirk" Stain coldly said to a panicked Shinso.

"This way, you could never be a hero even if you weren't worth it in the first place..., but this is just a one-time only deal. if you dare to think that you can recover and try to be a hero after today, i will make sure to find you, and then make you beg for death, you have being warned" Stain said and then he just disappeared from shinso sight and left the panicked and dizzy kid on that alleway.

Shinso weakly pushed through one exit of the alleyway and then he fainted on the spot. The passersby that were there panicked at the sight of a pale kid holding his throat while blood was pouring out from a nasty cut in that throat, only one of them was able to do the right thing, an ambulance was called and Shinso was taken to a hospital but not before warning U.A. and his parents about that incident.

Shinso survived that incident, but he lost his voice in the process and the mental scars that he gained from that traumatic event destroyed the dream of being a hero that Shinso had, Stain's threat echoed in his mind, and that filled him with dread. Eraserhead felt that the world was now making it a mission to punish him for his incompetence a top priority. His career as a hero was constantly at risk now that his sins caught up to him and now the only kid that he found worthy to be a hero had been not only forced to fulfill a near-impossible set of standards to be in the hero course, but now Stain had crippled him to the point that Shinso's dream to be a hero were killed.

For how long Eraserhead would have to suffer for his sins? Wasn't his situation that he found himself now punishment enough? The class that he was supposed to guide and teach was slowly crumbling in front of him while he was unable to figure out how to fix it and he had already lost two students because of their stupid actions. There was no end to the problmes that were piling up on his plate and Erasehread saw no real light at the end of this tunnel.

There was no end to the problems that were piling up on his plate and Eraserhead saw no real light at the end of the tunnel, but it was fitting to a man who put multiple kids in similar situations in which they had their hopes and livelihoods taken away from them for the Innocent Sin of not measuring up to his ridiculous standards to suffer now that near Eternal Punishment that was that despair and sorrow that were left to endure thanks to his actions. This was Eraserhead's personal hell and one that was earned with his actions.

"..." Izuku was in front of the man who was the source of that hostile intent that he sensed from the outside and it was years of dealing with this kind of people that made Izuku capable of getting that man's number in one single eye contact.

That barely hidden scorn on his glare and how Sir Nighteye's words were dripping with venom when he referred to Izuku was the only thing that Izuku needed to hear to tune his words out of his mind and to not even bother to acknowledge them.

Those barely passive and more aggressive comments Sir Nighteye threw at him to try to convince him to relinquish OFA were just now background noise that Izuku had already been used to hear in the past. one more voice trying to put him down was not a big deal to Izuku and that made Sir Nighteye's diatribe about how his lack of worthiness at wielding OFA and how he was staining All Might's legacy with his "weakness" was something that he couldn't allow to happen didn't affected Izuku at all. He heard way worse insults that the man was throwing at him now for pettier things in the past and that unfortunately took the edge off Sir Nighteye's spite-fueled argument.

Even if Izuku wasn't mute at this moment, Izuku would simply let the man say his piece, maybe that was because that video had already done enough damage to him that anything lower than that was ineffective at this point.

Izuku just stood there with his arms crossed with a bored expression on his face while the man was too busy "tearing him down" that he didn't saw when Izuku had enough and then he singled to Gran Torino that he was done with this farce. The only sound that snapped Sir Nighteye from his self-righteous tirade about izuku was when the door of his office was opened and then he saw how Izuku was about to leave that office with Gran Torino.

"Where do you think you are going?" Sir Nighteye said, Izuku didn't bother to turn back at the man and the one that decided to reply was Gran Torino.

"Do you really are asking that question? We are going back to where we came from to train, this has proven to be a waste of time, and is clear to me that you are a liability, not an asset, to Izuku's training" Gran Torino said. He just stood there for half an hour listening to how Sir Nighteye tore onto Izuku from every angle and argument that he could throw to try to force Izuku to give up OFA so his apprentice could wield it. it was a clear show of mental fortitude that izuku simply stood there unbothered by those insults and even if izuku was muted at the moment and unable to reply, Izuku could have abandoned the room earlier and just spared himself from this undeserved tongue-lashing, but Izuku decided to give the man one chance even if he sensed that hostile intent that Sir Nighteye had directed at him, but now after that long argument that Sir Nighteye made about Izuku's unworthiness that made him unfit to wield OFA, Izuku decided that the hero had wasted his chance and he had enough.

Sir Nighteye didn't took those words kindly and to see that Gran Torino was not on his side angered the hero. One would expect that an adult like Sir Nighteye would accept the fact that he f*ck this one up and that he should at least let the issue drop to keep some of his dignity, but as was said, Spite is one hell of a motivator to push people to do things in life, but few people was capable of channeling that spite in a positive way. Sir Nighteye was not one of those people.

Izuku felt a spike in that hostility that Sir Nighteye had directed at him and it was thanks to Gran Torino's training that Izuku was able to react on time. Izuku dodged a weighted seal that Sir Nighteye threw at him but instead of panicking, Izuku let the flow take him over and his body gently sidestepped that attack while also evading Sir Nighteye's attempt to restrain him.

"Hold still, you worthless brat!" Sir Nighteye said. He was upset over the fact that Izuku dodged that sneak attack of his. A man who was skilled in the act of predicting his enemies' attacks was too angered to realize that Izuku was able to move on an instinctual level to dodge something that Sir Nighteye believed was a sure way to win against Izuku.

"..." Izuku closed his eyes to activate Flow and then Sir Nighteye went on the offensive, but it was useless. No matter how much combat experience Sir Nighteye had in comparison to Izuku. To see how a pitiful way to use OFA that Izuku was using was countering the hero by throwing back his preferred strategy at his face didn't make the hero relent. Sir Nighteye had already judged Izuku as unworthy and even if Izuku was able to beat the hero on a one vs one, Sir Nighteye was never going to change his mind.

Izuku remembered how Bakugo was with that stubborn streak that the hero showed and something in his mind clicked in. An emotion that Izuku held back inside of him flared up and then third vestige sensed that something was going on with him.

In the outside world, everyone saw how Izuku's veins stopped glowing and then OFA's power enveloped Izuku in a blue glow that was glowing with more intensity the more that Izuku dodged Sir Nighteye's attacks. At some point, Izuku's ability to dodge was compromised when that blue aura was glowing with great intensity that it illuminated the whole room in which Izuku and Sir Nighteye were fighting, and at that moment, Sir Nighteye decided to go in the offensive.

"Got you, you little sh*t!" Sir Nighteye said and then he put both of his hands on Izuku's shoulders. He then decided to use his Foresight quirk to get a perfect read on izuku's moves to fully humiliate him.

Sir Nighteye's eyes turned black and then his irises turned violent, he then saw the future, he saw from a third person's perspective how Izuku retaliated his quirk usage by grabbing him by his wrists and then applying pressure to break them. He saw how Izuku moved his lips like he was talking, but Sir Nighteye was sure that Izuku was mute at the moment. His vision somehow quickly ended and then he was back to see Izuku in first person.

Sir Nighteye tried to get his hands away from Izuku, completely disregarding the fact that as far as he knew, his visions were unavoidable, and then he saw how Izuku's hands moved faster than he could, and then Izuku was holding Sir Nighteye's wrists.

"..." Izuku then started to apply pressure on Sir Nighteye's wrists and then the hero who was so confident in his attempts to intimidate izuku was now groaning in pain.

The sidekicks of the man and Gran Torino saw how Izuku was now getting the man on his knees by applying pressure on the taller man's wrist to the point that he started to groan in pain.

"...Bitch!" Izuku then suddenly shouted and then Sir Nighteye felt how his wrists were crushed at the same time with enough strength to cause the man to pass out in pain.

Everyone in the room was surprised by the fact that Izuku was able to say something after the fact that izuku had been rendered mute after the Sports Festival, but it was that anger that Izuku had suppressed over the years that Sir Nighteye foolishly awakened that allowed that temporal miracle to happen.

Those years of suffering that izuku endured also had a negative effect on Izuku's mind that went above what caused his muteness after that video shamed him to all the world. A burning fire that Izuku actively suppressed during the years of heavy bullying that was an amalgam of his anger and hatred for those who hurt him had been aroused by Sir Nighteye's unheroic display and actions against him. Izuku's temporal bout of muteness left Izuku's mind in a more sensible frame that made his emotions influence Izuku more than he wanted to admit.

As Flow was a manifestation of Izuku's desire to run away from pain and suffering that resonated with Danger Sense and Gear Shift, This burning fury that called upon Fa Jin into the mix was the manifestation of Izuku's rage and desire to hurt others as a revenge for what they did to him. Both ways to call upon OFA's power were compatible even if Izuku wasn't aware of it at the moment, izuku was now exhausted and wanted to go back with Gran Torino to his home to rest for a while.

Gran Torino just told Izuku to wait for him on the outside as he decided to tell the sidekicks that he was going to inform U.A. and all might about this mess and that they should get out of dodge since they were at least innocent enough in his opinion.

The old hero didn't took that much time to tell that and then both Izuku and Gran Torino returned to the hero's home to talk about what just happened there.

"..." Izuku looked at the hero who was now in some casual clothes after the man told him that they weren't going to train today and then Gran Torino decided to talk.

"All right Midoriya..., just take a deep breath and write in that notebook of yours what you want to say about what happened..., don't worry, I am not upset at what you did. You defended yourself against a man who clearly was too high on his own ego to even take a no for an answer..., in fact, I think that I should apologize to you for not interfering in that fight sooner, it was keeping those two sidekicks from getting in the way, and by the time that I was going to interfere, you already put an end to that fight" Gran Torino said. He was not that naive to believe that just because in a moment of emotional distress Izuku was able to say one word meant that Izuku was able to talk now.

"..." Izuku nodded at the man and even if he wanted to at least try to say something, izuku knew that it would be for the best to first put his thoughts in order while writing what he wanted to say about the events that happened in that man's agency. Gran Torino saw those notes when Izuku was down with them and then he understood what happened in a way.

Izuku was overwhelmed by anger in those moments and was able for a couple of seconds to break through the shame and fear that were clouding his mind. those notes made it clear to Gran Torino that izuku had been suppressing during the years a lot of anger that allowed him to attack Sir Nighteye and allowed him to even say one word in his anger-influenced state of mind.

It was a shame that their week together was going to end soon because it was clear that Izuku had still things to work out of his system and it appeared that he was better equipped to properly help Izuku with his quirk issues that were also tied to his emotional state.

Maybe Gran Torino could get out of his retirement to help Izuku in U.A. until he could get everything under control. It was years since the hero found himself motivated enough to consider returning to teaching again. the last time that he was a teacher was when he helped All Might to properly build himself up to wield OFA and Nana's death was still in his mind at those moments which made him feel a little more soured at the thought of training All Might that it took away his passion to teach after he was done with All Might.

His way of coping with Nana's death made him to be more harsher than he needed to be with All Might and it took years for him to admit to himself that he could at least had tried to be more kind to Toshinori in those moments when he ruthlessly trained him. He took out his frustration on Toshinori because he in a way blamed him for Nana's death when she passed the quirk to him and that was what in the end took away from him that desire to help the next generation of heroes.

But with Izuku, Gran Torino rediscovered that passion that made him a teacher in U.A. in the past. Izuku had a lot of potential to learn and showed that if the time was taken to train him, then izuku would show that all that time invested was properly spent. Maybe Izuku was slower in getting the handle of OFA's power in comparison to Toshinori, but he had a quick mind that was eager to learn and Gran Torino saw in that mind the potential to surpass All Might even if he was unable at the moment to match the number one hero in physical prowess.

He would talk with Nezu and All Might to see if he could temporarily be rehired in U.A. to continue to mentor izuku for as long as he could, but it would be for the best to focus on the present. there was still three days until this week ended and he was almost anxious to see how far izuku could go by the end of this week.

"Well Midoriya..., I can say with confidence that you have spent this whole week with me learning a lot and showing a lot of progress. You may had reached a plateau at the moment in your attempts to use more than a 15% of OFA power in your words..., but maybe you need not dwell too much on it. Your body is still adapting to OFA's power, so you should focus on learning how to properly manage that 15%, and when your body is ready, you may be able to tap into more power without realizing it one day. For the time being, you should try to focus on mastering this new technique that you named Blaze now that you had better control of Flow" Gran Torino said. This was now the last day and Izuku wanted to at least train one last time before going back to Mustafu. Gran Torino decided to indulge Izuku and both sparred until it was time for the last train to go home. Izuku did send through a mail service the few belongings that he brought with him back to his home so he could be unbothered with his luggage at the moment and now that the time to return back to U.A., Izuku was starting to get sad.

Thanks to Gran Torino. Izuku was able to use Flow with ease to the point that he could toggle it on and off at will now with no delay at all and he could keep it on without constantly controlling his breath, it was a good thing for Izuku to had almost mastered Flow to that point because now he had OFA:Blaze to worry about.

Flow was easy for Izuku to use now because thanks to Gran Torino's training and guidance, Izuku learned how to use it while not losing his cool, Izuku now used a more relaxed mind frame to let Flow do its thing over letting his inner fears drive him during that state of mind. Blaze, on the other hand, was triggered by negative emotions related to his anger and frustration, the moment the Izuku awakened Blaze after that outburst of anger in Sir Nighteye's agency, Flow's initial limitation about not being able to fight back was partially lifted so while he now was able to fight back, Izuku had to be careful while dogging because if Izuku spent too much time dodging now, he entered in an angered state of mind that pushed him into a full offensive mindset that made Izuku disregard any kind of defense in order to vent his accumulated fury in the closest thing that he could hit.

It took almost three hours of constantly dodging for Izuku to flip out while training with Gran Torino for Blaze to trigger on its own and Izuku became an easy target in that berserked mind frame. The moment that his self-restrain was over, Blaze activated and overrode Flow, forcing Izuku to focus only on hitting the closest thing that he could get his hands on in a way that caused the highest amount of destruction to calm down with no care about his own safety.

The mix between Fa Jin and his emotions was a wild combination that converted all the kinetic movement that he did while Flow was active into stored power and when his body was unable to contain any more energy, his mind got overwhelmed with anger until he released all that energy one way or another.

Izuku needed to balance now his two mental states so he wouldn't enter into Blaze at the worst possible moment. The massive amount of power that Izuku gained in that state was frankly worthless from his point of view because he was only able to use all that power in one single hit before having to charge up again. At best, Blaze could be used as a last resort in case Izuku needed to hit something really hard because Izuku in that state was spared from breaking his bones from the backlash of releasing said power in one single hit, but all that power didn't made Izuku to feel confident in Blaze at the moment. but as Gran Torino said, he needed the time to train with Blaze so he could turn that unreliable technique into something usable.

"Thank...you..." Izuku said with some difficulty to Gran Torino in order to properly say goodbye to the man and then he took the train that was supposed to take him home. The train would reach Mustafu by midnight and Izuku's position in U.A now gave him enough liberty to at least get there a little late once or twice a month for understandable reasons. izuku decided to close his eyes and relax a little to not need to sleep much when he returned home late today. but what had fate in store for Izuku now?

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

"..." Izuku started to doze up on the train and then his mind wandered a little. The images of a black-haired woman in a hero suit alongside a clearly younger and taller Gran Torino came to his mind now. Izuku felt that those images were too real to be a creation of his imagination, and he was right.

The mental wall that Izuku created that was keeping a lot of OFA's power and quirks at bay cracked when Izuku called upon Fa Jin in a moment of anger, the vestiges were testing the waters and it was clear that a small channel to communicate with Izuku had been created after that day.

Nana Shimura focused on her memories before she passed OFA to All Might and Izuku saw how Gran Torino and her worked together in the past. Izuku focused on that moment about how the two heroes worked together, but he paid more attention to Gran Torino's fighting style in his best years.

The man was fast even in his youth and Izuku watched how Jet was used to bounce through walls to either cross long distances or deliver precise and powerful kicks that were too fast to dodge. He did have a closer experience in that week of training about how Gran Torino used his quirk, but it was nice to see it from a third-person perspective. The woman who was floating gently in the air was not that bad in comparison, she was fast as well, but Izuku didn't pay too much attention to what she could do.

"Hey, you..!" The vestige of Nana Shimura was able to get a read on Izuku's feelings at the moment and she took some offense on the fact that Izuku was writing her off. That female voice that came out of nowhere surprised Izuku hard enough that he woke up out of the surprise. The vision ended in one moment before Izuku was able to see the full combination move that both the woman and Gran Torino could do when together but what Izuku could see did inspired him in a way.

"...?!" Izuku woke up on the train and saw how the other passengers were scared. They were looking through the windows and they saw multiple black-skinned abominations beyond hope of salvation causing damage and chaos in the city to the point that the train speakers were activated to say to the passengers that they would stop in the next station and the train wouldn't move until the incident was resolved.

The unrest in the other passengers was palpable to Izuku and then Izuku sensed an incoming attack. Flow activated on his own and the passengers got scared when they watched how Izuku's body started to glow up a little.

"Get...Down...!" Izuku said while struggling to even get those two words out of him. The events that awakened Fa Jin for Izuku to use also partially returned to Izuku his ability to speak in a very limited capacity. Izuku felt fatigated now when he tried and succeeded to mutter one single word and Izuku deiced for the moment to just save his energy and avoid trying to talk unless the situation require it like right now for example.

The scared passengers did complied with Izuku's orders and when a winged Nomu tore through one of those windows and entered the train in search for new victims, the only thing that the creature could catch was Izuku, and he caught him all right...

The Nomu caught Izuku hands, Izuku's legs, Izuku's fists going straight to the creature's exposed brain, and Izuku's kicks going through its torso to cause more damage to the creature until it stopped moving from all the damage accumulated after that beatdown.

Sure, that Nomu was not like the one that Izuku encountered in the USJ and Izuku could tell that at first glance because this winged Nomu was too weak in comparison, but Izuku was not the same boy who had a lot of trouble fighting against that Behemoth of a creature on the USJ and even if he was not using OFA power to deliver powerful attacks anymore, he was using it more smartly now.

Izuku was now going his own way while using OFA power instead of imitating All Might like he did before, using all the power that he could muster with OFA in one hit like All Might did never worked for him and Izuku learned a better way to make OFA to work with him.

Izuku called OFA power at a lower and safer output for his body to be able to handle it and focused on speed and mobility over raw strength. He wasn't doing little damage with his fist and still hit hard with OFA power going through his body, but instead of hitting only once to win any fight, he just decided to hit multiple times to get a similar result. He may need to hit someone multiple times to win if he used that smaller amount of power that he could handle with OFA, but if he was able to hit someone multiple times in a couple of seconds that could incapacitate someone almost as fast as All Might could with his trademarked smashes, then Izuku would have to accept it.

Izuku wouldn't deny the fact that his admiration for the man who was his hero and mentor took a hit after that day at the sports festival, but All Might showed him that he actually cared for him despite his failures as a teacher in U.A. and while trying to help him to use OFA properly helped Izuku to put his feelings and grievances with All Might in order.

Izuku worshiped the hero that All Might was to the public and to see that at his lowest point, the hero still had faith in him and was willing to leave U.A. with him if Izuku wanted to go elsewhere allowed izuku to see the man behind the hero that was All Might. All Might wasn't infallible in his eyes anymore, but the fact that he was willing to try his best to make up to him for his failures at his person did allow Izuku to still look up to All Might, but now he won't be a carbon copy of his mentor fighting style and he would fight on his own terms.

"...!" Izuku then focused back on the fight when he sensed a new presence rapidly reaching his position, Izuku was now ready to retaliate against the winged Nomu that had some yellow wings that had broken through one of the windows on the train when a hero that izuku recognized instantly.

Izuku saw how Gran Torino dashed through that broken window and then bounced inside the train while dodging the civilians to the ground in order to squash that nomu's head with a swift diving kick that ended that nomu's life.

"Midoriya!?" The hero said. He was more surprised than upset over the fact that he found Izuku on the same train that he saw nomu entering. He then saw another nomu that had been rendered unconscious and had been severely pummeled into the ground, Gran Torino realized that the reason that the situation was controlled in this particular train was because Izuku happened to be there by happenstance and decided to step up. That was an action of vigilantism, but considering how those nomus were far too dangerous and could easily kill multiple civilians even if they weren't their active targets, then it could be forgiven that Izuku decided to violate the law to protect all those civilians in this exceptional situation.

"...you are coming with me. The situation is critical at the moment and any capable hand that could help now is welcomed." Gran Torino said. He hated to do this, but with the nomus attacking the city while Stain was roaming around in search of new heroes to kill, then he was forced to drag Izuku into this mess.

Gran Torino saw how Izuku nodded at his words and then he decided to tell him with the rest of the passengers on that train as witnesses that he had full permission to use his quirk now until the situation was resolved. After that Izuku and Gran Torino stayed in the train protecting it from any more nomus until they reached the station and now that the passengers were in a safe location. Both of them got away from the station in order to put an end to this mess.

The hero Endeavor was on the ground at the moment alongside some of his sidekicks and his defective masterpiece of a son who still refused to use his fire even when the consequences of his refusal to do it would do to his aspiration to continue in the hero course.

At this point, his stubborn decision to only use his ice was a detriment in this situation. All the ruthless training that he did with his son had made Shoto only focus on himself and used his ice to the point that he was sabotaging the sidekicks that came with Endeavor and now he had officially ran out of patience with him. If Shoto used his ice to not interfere with the rest then Shoto could at least make a case to Endeavor for continuing in the hero course, but this had gone far enough.

"We will talk later about this...Shoto." Endeavor said in a tone of voice that Shoto recognized. It was the one that he used when talking with the disappointment of older siblings that Shoto had.

This meant that Endeavor had decided now that his threat of pulling him out of the hero course of U.A. was now a reality in the hero's mind and Shoto had succeded in his goal to spite his father. But is this a good idea? To sacrifice his dream to be a hero just to spite Endeavor for the abuse that he inflicted on his body and mind? To Shoto Todoroki this was a good trade-off, but nobody knew what the future holds in store for everyone, so when he looked at his phone and saw that someone not only in his class but also in his vicinity sent an SOS alarm through the classroom chat with the GPS locator, then he ignored it he had decided at this moment to give up heroism and he was not going to bother with trying to deal with a bunch of people that weren't his problem anymore.

Endeavor then ignored his son and continued his search for the hero killer while taking down as many nomus as he found out in his way, those brainless creatures weren't a match for his flames and only their sheer numbers was what made them dangerous for him.

"...There!" Izuku said. he was following Gran Torino through the rooftops of the city with a technique that came to his mind during that nap. He remembered how that woman used her quirk in a way to act like a spring in the air that Gran Torino used on occasion when both of them needed to cover a lot of distance in two different directions, Gran Torino used his quirk to expel a wind current that shot him in one direction and then the heroine was sent flying in the contrary direction.

Izuku's mind and body went on auto-pilot and when he tried to jump to the top of one building to get to the rooftop and he miscalculated his strength and jumped too high, Flow activated on its own and he then kicked the air and corrected course by launching himself in the contrary direction from when he kicked.

The vestiges inside of OFA were surprised over the fact that this experiment of theirs worked. The now obvious connection between OFA and Izuku's emotional state gave them the idea of trying to subtlety influence Izuku in his dreams in order to see if they could force him to manifest one of their quirks by putting one possible idea in his mind and it worked in a way. They managed to get Izuku to use Float, but it was more because he was focused on Gran Torino during that flashback and not on Nana and how she used Float, Izuku's newly founded admiration for the older hero was strong enough to serve as an inspiration for Izuku.

Gale, the name that Izuku came on the spot for that thing, was the combined use of Float and Fa jin to get Izuku to rocket himself in the air at high speed and maneuver in the air by kicking the air to bounce in an Invisible wall thanks to Flow what allowed Izuku to properly bridged those two quirks to allow Izuku to pull an imitation of Gran Torino's quirk. That detail was not lost to Nana who decided to take it in stride. The cracks on that wall that the vestiges were able to see were starting to become bigger enough to even see outside space that was Izuku's mindscape from the vestiges' location and they were waiting for the moment that they could actually interact with Izuku with fewer restrictions.

Gran Torino saw how Izuku pointed to one alleyway that was near their position and that meant that someone with a clear hostile intent was now within Izuku's reach. Gran Torino's risky gamble paid off at the moment, He decided to keep Izuku at his side for two reasons, the first one was that it would be for the best to have him in his sight in case he tried to get into the situation and tried to act like a hero, so with him giving permission to accompany him and use his quirk if needed then Izuku could do that anyway with no legal repercussions, and the second motive was to see if he could use that ability that Izuku had to sense hostile intent to track the hero killer, and considering that he sensed something now, then he would at least try his luck to see if it was Stain or a deranged villain that decided to take advantage of the chaos to commit crimes.

"All right Midoriya, this is what we will do. I will go first and you follow me from a distance, I will try to take down whatever person that is there on my own, and only if I can't do it, then you can interfere if you think is necessary." Gran Torino said. Izuku nodded at his instructions and then Gran Torino used his quirk to reach that alleyway quickly and he saw how Stain was about to kill a kid with his blade.

The hero killer was a man who was quick enough to take his opponents down in case they were able to avoid his first attack and relied on sneak attacks to get the upper hand against more trained and better-equipped opponents, so against a hero that was faster than him and attacked him in a moment that he wasn't aware of his surroundings. Stain was unable to do a damn thing against what it hit him.

A resigned Tenya Iida saw how Gran Torino came out of nowhere from his point of view and delivered a diving kick to Stain's head with enough force to knock the hero killer unconscious. A couple of seconds passed and then he was suddenly pulled up from the ground by two individuals. One was the hero who was about to be killed by Stain when he interfered and the other one was...

"Midoriya!?" Iida said. This was the first time after the whole disaster caused by Bakugo during the sports festival that Iida was able to see Izuku and Izuku's absence was felt in 1-A.

Hindsight was 20/20 and even if almost all of them recognized that Bakugo was a villainous scumbag in all but name, for the whole class it took some time in that week before the realization that Bakugo was always like that and the only thing that blinded them all was Kirishima vouching of Bakugo as a manly and heroic person, they bought up his deluded argument because Kirishima was a more social and charming person that Izuku was and that caused them all to allow that villain to act like the unpleasant person that he was unimpeded because all that cruel insults and abuse was targeted more to Izuku that to them.

Those malicious nicknames that Bakugo called them all weren't a way to show that he was a hardass who cared in a way about them and nicknamed them in a demeaning way with one of their attributes as a way to distinguish them like Kirishima wanted to imply. That was Bakugo being an unpleasant person who looked down on them and they brought in that stupid excuse that Kirishima told them all for no reason when all of them called him out about his jerkassery on the bus when they were going to the UJS.

Now Kirishima was a pariah in class and nobody, not even his best friend Mina Ashido, wanted anything to do with him unless they were forced to deal with him in a team exercise. Mina had an emotional meltdown when she shouted at Kirishima while he was still trying to deny reality about what they saw and how those videos had to be fake. The principal showed them one legally obtained footage from Aldera and those videos weren't doctored at all and showed the same thing that they saw in the Sports Festival.

That recording about the suicide baiting that Bakugo did to Izuku was the last straw that broke their friendship. Mina slapped Kirishima hard enough to throw him to the ground and then she reminded him how a lot of those bullies that they dealt with in the past suicide baited not only them, but those other weak kids in their previous school to the point that one of them tried to end his life because of that abuse.

Everyone was on edge now in class 1-A and even if Mineta was out of their sight to the benefit of the girls, the class ambiance was too tense to even unwind a little. Eraserhead attempts to try now to act like a proper homeroom teacher didn't land well in 1-A because the remaining students knew that they weren't worthy in his eyes and to see how he was that willing to forgo his naps for someone who was not his responsibility to deal with when they were left to figure things out on their own didn't endeared him to them now.

"..." Iida saw Izuku's eyes and he didn't found whatever warmth that he wanted to see at the moment. izuku was silently judging him now and Iida was now feeling lost.

"Could you tell us why you were about to be killed by the hero killer? At this point, is already known to the public that he is willing to attack school kids, so why didn't you run away?" Gran Torino asked.

"..." Iida was unable to look at the old hero to the eyes now and looked at the ground in shame.

"Revenge..., he tried to kill Stain because of what he did to the hero Ingenium..., that same Ingenium that is his older brother." The hero called Native said. Gran Torino looked at the boy before deciding to talk to him again.

"Revenge..., I won't be a hypocrite and say that I don't understand that feeling..., but what you did today was beyond foolish, boy. You thought that you could kill Stain and then what? Everything would be back to normal? Your brother would start to walk again like he was never injured by Stain? No, things don't work that way, boy." Gran Torino said.

“...” Iida was unable to even reply to Gran Torino's words at the moment.

"You are just a student of the hero course that barely had trained enough to perform as a hero in the field, but let's entertain your murderous plan and then I will tell you what would happen to you in the case that you had somehow killed Stain." Gran Torino said while looking at an ashamed Iida.

"You would have not only committed a crime that would had labeled you as a vigilantism even if you had made a public service by killing Stain, but that action could be considered an act of villany. Your relatives would had faced public backlash for your choices, even your older brother whom you were so keen to avenge would had faced some public shame for your crimes. That is what it would happened should your had gotten your revenge" Gran Torino said to Iida.

"Then what should I had done then!?" Iida almost shouted, gran torino just closed his eyes before replying to his question.

"The heroic answer would be that you should had risen about those feelings and acted like a hero..., but the realistic one is that when a person is hurt emotionally to the point that wanting revenge, then unless someone intervenes, the end result is that they succeed but lose everything or ruin their own lives in the process and are tormented by their failure, few people are satisfied after taking revenge against someone that caused that kind of pain, kid. So you should count your blessings now because someone intervened to prevent you from paying the price for your poorly made choice" Gran Torino simply said to the kid. He understood at some point the desire that Iida had when he wanted to kill Stain so that made him to be a little more kind to him.

“I...”

"Don't bother..., you should think long and hard about what you did and the consequences that your actions could bring to you now." Gran Torino said.

Stain today fell defeated at the hands of Gran Torino thanks to izuku's ability to detect hostile intent from a distance, Izuku had fought side by side with Gran Torino on those rooftops while taking down a lot of Nomus and even became an instrumental part in the capture of Stain.

The hero killer went down with no fanfare and nothing went in any possible way that the League of Villains could take advantage of. Izuku did got in a little trouble for his unexpected involvement in the Hosu incident, but Gran Torino's testimony aside from the fact that the vigilantism act that he committed was to defend a wagon full of people for a killing monster was something that the public wouldn't judge him harshly for it ended allowing Izuku to get away with what he did, what softened the blow for some people was the fact that he pretty much followed Gran Torino's orders to a T and didn't tried to act independently in those moments that he was under Gran Torino's orders. That show of discipline helped Izuku a bit to win over those who were more critical of his action on the train when the nomu attacked, like the chief police of Hosu who was politely told by Gran Torino to back of with his attempts to admonish Izuku for helping with his quirk in the capture of Stain before being explained that Gran Torino decided to give him permission to accompany in those moments and to use his quirk to defend himself.

Tenya Iida got away with it because Izuku in the end convinced Gran Torino and Native with some ussage of text to speach to give him one last chance. So the police were told that Iida ended up splitting up with the hero who was supposed to mentor him and found Stain by mistake and got attacked by him before Gran Torino intervened, but Gran Torino made the point to let him know that Nezu would be informed about the truth and that it was up to the principal to judge him for his actions. Iida accepted that and then he and the others moved out from Hosu and moved on with their lives.

Izuku ended up getting some popularity for the mere fact that he accompanied Gran Torino in his capture of Stain and Endeavor was upset over the fact that he had lost the chance to get that prestige for himself, combined with the fact that his son had decided to be a complete disappointment to him even after that ultimatum that he gave him at the beginning of the week, then Endeavor walking away from Hosu empty-handed was not helping him to suppress his foul mood.

The return from the internship week to U.A. of all the students was not as smooth as Nezu wanted it to be considering the fact that not only Endeavor was now getting his son out of the hero course for his insubordination during the week as an intern in his agency, but to know now that Shoto received the information of Stain location when a paralyzed Iida was able to send an emergency message in the 1-A class chatroom that Shoto received but then ignored it did pissed of the hero even more, the wrongful idea that Endeavor had that if he had been informed of that detail before then he could be the one that captured Stain was now in his head even if by the time that the message was sent, Gran Torino and Izuku were already in the scene ready to interfere.

Since Endeavor was Shoto's dad, then he could do this with no impediment, and even if Eraserhead tried to say that it would be a waste of potential if he was pulled out of the hero course, that only caused Endeavor to fire back at his words.

"You see, now that you are praising his "potential", I am afraid that your patronage is the proof that I needed to pull Shoto out of the hero course. Your appraisal of "heroic potential" is erratic to the point that you think that people that is unfit to be heroes deserve a pass. Or should we talk about how you praised that rabid blonde kid as a hero in the making for his violent behavior at the Sports Festival when he refused to end his match with that girl sooner because he wanted to play around with that girl like she was a prey animal to him?" Endeavor said. Those words silenced Eraserhead and in the end, Shoto Todoroki was pulled out of the hero course and demoted to the general course.

The second issue that they had to deal with was Tenya Iida's action of insubordination which only ended well because Gran Torino and Izuku were able to get there before something tragic could happen. the saving grace that this mess had was that Izuku's pleads to keep this mess under wraps for U.A. to deal with convinced the hero Native to let the issue for U.A. to handle.

When Nezu asked Izuku for a recap of what he did in Hosu, Izuku told them that his plead of mercy was more or less because Izuku in a way knew that U.A. couldn't allow themself to deal with another scandal after the Sports Festival and he called that decision of his a repayment to U.A. for his new situation there.

So Nezu decided that Tenya Iida was going to receive a proper punishment for his actions even if he was not going to be expelled of the Hero course. It would be take a lot of time before Iida would be allowed to go back to the streets unsupervised after this stunt of his that almost cost him his own life. Izuku for his part was back to training at his own pace by trying to master that new technique that he awakened when Sir Nighteye tried to muscle up his way into forcing Izuku to give up OFA.

All Might and Nezu were rightfully concerned about this new development that could drive Izuku into a berserker rage if he used Flow too much and were now trying to find any resource that they could find to help Izuku in his quest to master this Blaze technique that was now giving him some trouble. Counting now with Gran Torino getting involved in Izuku's training for more than just one week was a good start but All Might decided that he wasn't going to sit back now and let Izuku tackle this alone now. He owed Izuku the effort to try to help him more after not being able to fully help him in the past when his inability to figure out things as a teacher was one of the things in his mind that caused the situation at the Sports Festival. In All Might's mind, if he would had been more capable as a teacher, then he could have maybe not let Bakugo get out of control in that first class and would had helped Izuku to get OFA under control earlier, and would had definitely not waited until the entrance exam to give him OFA.

Maybe the hero was blaming himself for things that weren't either beyond his control or he looked at them with a critical perspective with hindsight, but All Might was being genuine in his attempts to correct his wrongs not for his pride, but because Izuku deserved it. With those thoughts in his mind, the hero resolved to improve as a teacher to at least make amends for his past failures even if izuku forgave him for them.

Even if Izuku's situation drastically improved with his control of OFA now that he had Gran Torino's help to improve his Flow technique. the fact that no one knew how Izuku was doing all those things with OFA power made All Might think that maybe if he investigated the past wielders of OFA, then maybe All Might could uncover some information that could be useful to Izuku, it was a good thing that All Might at least had some of the names from then and a contact with the police that could give him some help with this particular investigation.

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

"..." Izuku was now resting in a forest in U.A. after a training session with Gran Torino. Izuku was meditating for a while in order to try to see if he could get an insight about those strange memories that he was having recently after calming his mind and trying to focus on those memories.

Izuku talked with Gran Torino about some strange dreams about a heroine called Nana Shimura and how both worked together in the past for a couple of days after he retunred to U.A., and Gran Torino was surprised about the fact that Izuku was giving him accurate descriptions of some of the fights that he fought alongside Nana in the past.

He then decided to try to see if he meditated or did something like that helped him to see if those dreams were a result of OFA's influence on him, and considering that he was seeing almost a weird box that held some cracks that were giving him that strange feeling when he had that dream on the train. Then maybe he found something useful with this mental exercise.

"…!" Izuku snapped from his meditation when he heard the sound of a fallen tree branch was broken by someone's foot and that for a couple of seconds put him on guard.

"Shroom!" Izuku heard a female voice saying that in the distance and then Izuku, in a bout of curiosity, got where the voice came from and saw a small brunette who reminded him of Uraraka who was happily moving around in a small area of the forest while surrounded with multiple kinds of mushrooms.

"..." Izuku was almost entranced for a couple of seconds from his point of view at that sight before catching himself in the act of what he was doing and discretely got away from that area. That girl was enjoying her time in private and Izuku was nobody to get in the way of how she wished to spend the free period of U.A. in peace.

Izuku avoided steeping on a tree branch that was in the ground to not disturb the girl and minded his own business, he still had in his mind the sight of that cracked box that was leaking OFA's power that was inside of him and thought that this detail was important enough to share with All Might and Gran Torino the next time that both talked inside U.A.

"..." Izuku was now hitting the books at Gran Torino's request because even if Izuku was keeping up with his studies at home, Gran Torino told him that it would be for the best that he tried to slow down a little for a while after those two weeks of intense training and that meant that he would have to occupy some of those hours that he used on U.A. to train his body and quirk into training his mind. Izuku was reminded about how he almost messed up his attempts to clean the beach when he tried to overexert himself in order to get it done faster and almost caused himself irreparable damage that would had messed up his physical conditioning when he was building his body to wield OFA.

Izuku was not really against that imposition, but he was a little far ahead with his studies than the other students of the hero course thanks to all that free time that he had to train. It was a bad habit that he had picked out in Aldera since a lot of the tests that he had in that school always had questions that were far more advanced than someone in his school year had to answer in any test, but since at this point, Izuku knew that Aldera was sabotaging him, then said personalized exams was only one of the things that Izuku was glad that he was not going to deal with anymore. At least Izuku wanted to believe that his written tests in U.A. wouldn't have any question about a thing that was only taught in the third year of the hero course or something like that.

Maybe he needed to take it easy for a while so his body could properly rest up to reach the appropriate condition to reach a higher output of OFA's power. so the idea of reviewing his knowledge about what he studied for a couple of hours in U.A. was an appropriate use of his time at the moment.

Izuku pretty much stayed inside the U.A. main building in a hidden corner while he studied in those hours, at least it was a relaxing way to pass the time before he trained again with Gran Torino or All Might depending on the situation.

"A box...?" Nezu said. classes in U.A. ended at the moment and now All Might and Gran Torino were discussing that detail that Izuku shared with Gran Torino after their most recent training sessions.

"Yes..., Midoriya did mention to me that he saw a box that had a lot of cracks from where OFA's power was leaking through what Izuku could feel at the moment." Gran Torino said, it appears that his suggestion for Izuku to meditate worked in a way.

"I see..., maybe that box is a manifestation of Midoriya's trauma, and those cracks could be considered either the power that OFA has braking through...or Midoriya's mind healing from said trauma and when that box is destroyed..., then maybe that means that he healed up from that trauma..." Nezu chimed in with his opinion. this was a little far off on his expertise, but it never hurts to have a positive look at the situation.

"I don't know..., but maybe you are right. At least for now, Midoriya is showing more progress with his attempts to talk even if he still has some trouble every time that he tries to say a single word." All Might said. He was surprised over the fact that Izuku was able to push past his trauma a little and was able to speak even if it was to say one or two words at a time before getting mentally exhausted.

"For the time being, I told Midoriya that he should at least study for two hours inside U.A. before we train, i believe that for the time being we shouldn't let him push himself that hard in order to not lose a lot of the progress that he had done with OFA in those past weeks." Gran Torino said.

"Yes, I think that it would be for the best that Midoriya slows down a little for now. He has made an impressive amount of progress in two weeks, but I think that we need to let him get those three techniques that he had developed under control before letting him to push himself harder. My greatest concern at the moment is that Blaze technique of his and how it can drive him into a berserker rage if he is pushed into that dangerous mental state of mind at the moment" Nezu said. They heard how Izuku's first usage of Blaze ended with him shattering Sir Nighteye's wrists to the point that he almost lost his hands because of that powerful release of energy that empowered Izuku's grip strength to the point that he caused those severe injuries with ease without realizing it.

Sir Nighteye's actions on that day were out of place and he got what was coming to him when he decided to act like an entitled prick who believed that he could be the only person in the world who could make the right choice about who could be his rightful successor of OFA's power without taking All Might's opinion on consideration, but said outburst of anger was concerning to say the least. For the time being, Izuku's training with Blaze was only allowed when Ectoplasm was available and that was because Izuku didn't want to force U.A. to mess with their schedule too much for his sake.

Izuku's hatred of being given too much of a preferential treatment stemmed in a way from the fear that he had that he could turn into someone like Bakugo if he got away with it a lot of times. Aldera's constant allowances corrupted Bakugo to the point that he degenerated into a villain when their lack of discipline alongside their encouragement of his worst impulses did allowed Bakugo to got to that point. Izuku knew that he needed to master OFA, but he refused to act like Bakugo did his whole life, Izuku was also aware that he needed some of those privileges to play catch up with the rest of the students of the first year but he refused to have the whole faculty of U.A. warped around his finger.

So Izuku focused almost all his efforts on mastering Gale during the school week, and for his fortune, Gale was too straightforward to even had any weird nuances that made it complicated to use. Izuku needed to store energy that he could accumulate while he moved while Flow was active and then he just channeled that energy in his legs to rocket himself to any direction that he wanted as long as he "kicked" an invisible wall to bounce on the contrary direction, he could kick that imaginary wall in the air to more or less fly in the air, but Izuku was at this moment thinking if he could release that energy in a more offensive way instead of using only it to spam air dashes to increase his mobility with that added ability to maneuver in the air that Gale offered at the moment.

Izuku needed to keep in mind that Flow made that aerial manoeuver easy because he could react in time to his surroundings when he was moving at high speed and if he deactivated Flow in the air, then he was unable to control his body in the air and turned into a human cannonball that it was almost a miracle that he could always land in the ground without slamming himself into the ground for some reason instead of injuring himself when he ended hitting the ground or any obstacle, that was Float working overtime in those moments to protect Izuku from any lethal injury.

Izuku needed to fine-tune his control while he was airborne and despite those scares, Izuku was confident that he could pull this one off after some training, but he would see if he could add to his suit some modifications to allow him to glide like a flying squirrel while he was in the air, any external way to stabilize himself in the air that didn´t required from OFA usage was not a bad idea to implement, he could also try to add a grappling hook gun or something like that Just beCause it sounded like a good idea at the moment. In those moments, one of the vestiges inside OFA felt almost offended at the idea of Izuku using a grappling hook gun while he could do all that with his quirk if Izuku could get in contact with him.

"..." Izuku was now at the moment trying to draw a basic sketch about what he wanted to add to his costume in order to get the idea more or less done in a way. He told All Might and Gran Torino his idea first before trying to talk with the principal about how he could implement that idea in his hero suit. Nezu did not saw any inconvenience for Izuku to do that, but he told him that he would had to go through the appropriate channels to get the support department to do that and that he would need to present a design for it. Nezu also gave Izuku some visual material about what he asked so he could visualize it better and he was using his free period to get that done. He was enjoying the peace and quiet that the forest area had to relax and aside from that girl of 1-B that he found out there from time to time, Izuku was alone there and not too stressed out at the moment.

Izuku didn't feel that bothered for someone else to be in this forest and since this was U.A. property, then he has no right to decide who gets to enjoy it or not. In fact, that cheerful tone of voice when she was surrounded by those mushrooms that she could create with her quirk wasn't that bothersome to him, that kind of childlike happiness that she expressed with her voice was almost therapeutic to Izuku in a way.

Getting excited to the point that you started to mutter the names of some mushrooms like it was a catchy song remembered Izuku how he in the past could get that worked up with quirks so much that he broke into a muttering storm with crazy and wild theories about a quirk that caught his interest at that moment. A sad thing was that he was unable to get excited at the moment for things that in the past would have gotten his interest, like a quirk that was rare or something like that.

But this peaceful atmosphere was in peril when Izuku sensed a small hostile presence that was getting nearby, Izuku decided that if he was sensing any kind of hostility, then he was going to check it out just in case, the thing was that said hostile presence was getting near the girl for some reason.

Kinoko Komori was enjoying a peaceful time in the forest while admiring some of the mushrooms that she created with her quirk and aside from that boy who was in class 1-A before leaving it to go solo in a special hero course, she was alone in that part of U.A.'s forest.

She saw how Izuku was almost loss for words when he found her in the forest a couple of weeks ago, Izuku just stood there looking at her like she had taken all his attention and was the only thing that he could see in the world before he snapped from that weird trance and leave her alone.

She was a little creeped out about that event but since she was still feeling a little separated from her classmates after the mess of the sports festival fractured class 1-B in a way, then she had nobody to talk to about it and in the end, she decided to confront her fears and tried to keep an eye on Izuku as payback for that.

She looked at how Izuku just stood in one clear of the forest and he either meditated or was busy writing in a notebook that he had in his person, he didn't pay attention to the fact that she was in his vicinity and then she left him alone. after a couple of days, she rationalized that maybe she did something to call his attention while he was busy and he was surprised to find someone there. After that realization, she felt a little ashamed to be so judgemental of Izuku about that event and tried to summon the courage to get near him and at least apologize for that, but she never managed to do that.

She then heard the sound of a tree branch being stepped on and she turned herself to look at where that sound came from and saw that ex-student of class 1-A that electrocuted almost everyone in the second round of the sports festival.

She saw how that boy had a menacing face and a co*cky smirk on his face that crumbled the moment he looked at someone that appeared behind Kinoko Komori.

"Not you...!" Denki Kaminari said, he just staggered a little the moment that he saw that Izuku Midoriya appeared out of nowhere and was simply glaring at him with a neutral expression on his face.

"Back off...now" Izuku said and then he saw how his ex-classmate ran away with the tail between his legs. Kinoko then faced Izuku's direction and saw that he was there, his face became less cold when he looked at her.

"I made it...in time" Izuku said and Kinoko saw that it appeared that talking was a taxing thing for Izuku at the moment. Kinoko stared at Izuku for a couple of seconds while trying to talk to him.

"I... thank you...?" Kinoko said, she was still hesitating a little at the moment. Izuku did look at her and nodded at her words.

"No problem..., I will...lea..." Izuku tried to say, but he then blocked up at the last second and stopped talking again. Kinoko saw how Izuku's face was showing a frustrated expression and the moment and then he walked away.

"Midoriya, wait!" Kinoko said and then she followed him to where he was before he decided to go to see her. she saw how Izuku moved to one clear in the forest, he had his backpack there and on the ground, there was a notebook and a pen.

"...?" Izuku was surprised by the fact that Kinoko followed him, he wanted to leave her alone to not bother her after he interfered in that mess that his ex-classmate tried to start with her for some reason.

"I..." Kinoko then went silent when she realized what she had done out of an impulse. She hadn't thought far ahead and now was paralyzed with indecision after finding himself alone with Izuku.

"..." Izuku saw how Kinoko was starting to panic a little and Izuku decided to just grab his notebook and pen in order to write something. When he was done, he gave the notebook for her to read.

"Huh...?" Kinoko was surprised about it and then she started to read what was written on that page of the notebook. In there there was a quick explanation about his situation alongside an apology for bothering her when he got there when his ex-classmate was about to harass her or something. She read something about Izuku sensing a small hostile intent getting in his vicinity and that made him to go to see what was happening.

"I see..." Kinoko said after reading all of that, at least now that she had an explanation on a way, her concerns disappeared and now felt a little more comfortable with Izuku.

"So..., if I talk to you, you will write your reply in that notebook?" Kinoko asked. Izuku just nodded at her words and that made Kinoko think that maybe she could at least try to communicate with Izuku in this way. Izuku nodded to her question and then Kinoko decided to see how fast she could communicate with Izuku in this way. With her mind made out, Kinoko and Izuku were using whatever time they had left at the moment before the free period was over, and for all the reticent and wariness that she had from interacting with Izuku after that weird moment a week ago, Kinoko found herself having no trouble at all with interacting with Izuku now that she was talking to him. Sure, Izuku may be unable to reply to her and let her ramble as much as she wanted, but Izuku was not really bothered by her voice or constant attempts to talk about mushrooms when she tried to continue any conversation when she diverged a little for the topic of conversation like a lot of people in the past told her that found annoying from her. She had fun in a way and surprisingly opened up a lot with Izuku in one conversation despite the fact that he couldn't speak back to her at the moment.

"...Oh, sorry! I just got fired up a little and forgot about..." Kinoko tried to say when she realized that she hadn't let Izuku have any chance to interject, Izuku smiled a little and shook his head before writing something in that notebook.

Kinoko did read Izuku's words and still felt bad about it, Izuku let it know that he didn't have that much issue with letting her go all out while talking and that he wasn't that upset about it, a lot of people knew his past as a bullied kid in Aldera thanks to those videos and the media coverage of the trial against Bakugo and Aldera, so it was not like he had too much to say about himself now even if he could speak like he used to.

"Still..., there has to be something that I could do to make up for that" Kinoko said. Izuku was going to shake his head, but then he reminded a thing that Gran Torino told him the other day and then he decided to just write something in his notebook for Kinoko to read.

"Ohh..?" Kinoko read that note and then she nodded at what it was written. She could do that, Izuku told her that she could hang up with him here from time to time if she wanted.

Izuku needed to socialize with other people of his age and felt comfortable enough with her to ask that. Izuku didn't ask that with an ulterior motive, and Kinono accepted from time to time to hang out with him in the forest that is in U.A. during the free period during class hours.

This day had some consequences for one student who now only had one last chance before he would be expelled from U.A. because Izuku told Nezu about what happened in the forest and Kaminari folded in the principal office when he was called to discuss those events and he admitted that he wanted to intimidate the weakest student of 1-B to make her fail so he could have a spot open in the hero course in case that he could return to the hero class, only having that chance because Izuku, in the end, decided to intercede in the way to let him stay as long as he stayed away from the students of the hero course and Nezu found that deal acceptable enough to let Izuku's plea to be a thing in the first place.

"..." A couple of weeks had passed since that event and Izuku was now in Ground Gamma in order to test the finalized product which was his new hero suit with something that Izuku called the gliding mod as one of the new additions that he designed to improve the usage of Gale. The gliding mod was just the reworking of parts of his hero suit to allow his suit to become a wingsuit at command, from his upper arms to his ankles, with some compartments that kept stored the wings made of a special kind of nylon that was self-repairing that were meant to turn the hero suit into a flying suit. In his back, Izuku had an additional compartment that Izuku could use as an emergency parachute in case that he needs it and the last addition was a grappling hook gun that Izuku could use to attach himself to something that was at 1 km max away from his position and then he could pull himself in that direction while he was in the air.

In a surprising turn of events, Izuku ended up getting half of its new suit thanks to All Might as instead of getting it from U.A., what he asked was a tall order, and even if Izuku was starting to get a positive rep in the hero community, no support company was either willing or capable of giving Izuku what he needed at the moment, so All Might asked a friend of his to design and create the gliding mod from Izuku's notes. The grappling hook gun was far easier to obtain and he got him from U.A.

His grappling hook gun looked almost like it was made of gold and had something engraved on both sides of the grip that reads "絢爛美" or Gorgeous Beauty as he could read it. He was told that an excentric but talented student of the support course of the third year did it for him and that in a way described how he felt about its new tool, the golden color and some of the most creative design choices made The Gorgeous Beauty look almost like a piece of modern art that a support item, but damn, it was easy to use and barely encumbered Izuku while he tried to use it in the air, Izuku was willing to endure the gaudy design and coloring because it was that good to use.

Izuku was now waiting for Gran Torino's order to start and since he was in the same area in which today both classes of the first year of the hero course, that meant that he was at the moment surrounded by his ex-classmates, those students of class 1-B and their respective homeroom teachers.

This was the first time in a month that Eraserhead saw Izuku after that day in Nezu's office. Eraserhead had too much on his plate after those days and was too focused on trying now to regain his trust with the remaining students of class 1-A who were keeping him at arm's length from them. The loss of Shoto Todoroki in class 1-A didn't help in his attempts to earn his students' trust and to salvage his reputation now in the hero community.

Eraserhead looked at Izuku's posture now and Izuku looked far more confident and focused in comparison to the first month of class. Is this the result of Izuku's being trained by someone who was capable of teaching him what he needed to do to start getting his quirk under control? All that progress that he was informed that Izuku did in two weeks after going solo and under Gran Torino's tutelage put him at a performance level that made him surpass the strongest students of 1-A and he was still having some trouble with his quirk did irk the hero to no end.

All that potential hidden in Izuku was in front of the hero since the beginning of the school year, and Eraserhead wasted it by not only not bothering to pay attention to Izuku because he hated the fact that the kid had a connection to All Might and he decided to take his grievances with Izuku for it but also because he was too busy training Shinso Hitoshi instead of doing his job. Nezu told him point blank that Izuku was put in his class with the intention that he could help Izuku with his quirk's lack of control, but now that he failed Nezu, then he was not going to be allowed to know anything about why Nezu took that decision. Now there was a massive divide between Izuku and his past classmates and homeroom teacher that became larger day by day.

The perspective of the students of class 1-B was from an outsider's point of view and they had to deal with Monoma's public shaming of them that they shared in a way when his plan to not go all out in the first event caused them to look like schemers and weaklings to those more critical heroes that didn't take those actions kindly. The whole cornering of class 1-A after the USJ incident that Monoma spearheaded with other students made the public brand him as a school bully and that in a way shattered the building class dynamics that were forming in those first months of class.

So when everyone saw how Kinoko Komori walked to where Izuku was and started to talk to him in a friendly way, almost everyone was surprised about not only the fact that someone did that, but also the fact that Izuku actually replied more or less in a friendly way.

"Hello, Midoriya. is that the gliding mod thing that you were busy designing?" Kinoko said. the students of class 1-B were surprised over the fact that they saw Kinoko speaking a whole sentence without trembling or even getting silent mid-sentence.

"Yeah..., got to test it..." Izuku said, he had made enough progress since he established a friendship with Kinoko and now he could communicate a little more than before, he still had some limitations and could burn himself out, but if he talked with people that he considered friendly, then Izuku didn't exhaust himself as fast as if he was with someone else. He wasn't able to speak like he did before yet, but he could at least now more or less work in the field as long as he gave quick and short answers.

"Cool..., but what about that thing?" Kinoko said, she pointed at the Gorgeous Beauty and Izuku sighed before replying.

"A grappling hook gun..., liberties in the..design were taken..., by the one that made...it" Izuku said. He then showed the engraving on the grip of the gun and let her read it.

"Gorgeous Beauty? Is this the signature of the one that made it?" Kinoko asked.

“Maybe...” Izuku said and then he heard how Gran Torino called him to say that he should get ready soon for his training exercise. He waved goodbye to Kinoko and then he left the group of surprised students and teachers behind before they stared at Kinoko like she had grown a second head or something, she did felt those stares before she almost returned to her usual self that her classmates were used to see in class.

Before anyone could ask what happened in front of them, All Might told them that the exercise was about to start and that they should get ready to move now. for those of class 1-A, this was the first time in a long time since they heard Izuku's voice and it was clear that it lacked that usual warmth that it had before. To hear it again but to see that it was to talk to someone who wasn't any of them was a blow to their morale in a way. They wanted to get Izuku back but there was a nagging thought in their minds that made them think that Izuku didn't want to deal with them anymore. they tried their best to push that thought away for the moment, but it was harder to do that after seeing Izuku for the first time for so long.

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

Izuku's first test of the gliding mod was not as complicated as he imagined. Sure, Izuku did decided to learn how to use a normal wingsuit and practiced with Gale in order to get the timing and power of how to use it down and he had been practicing with the GB so he was more or less now going back through the basics of what he learned a couple of weeks ago.

Izuku was moving faster in the air this way and still kept control of his body's stability while using the GB to at least redirect his flying body in the air in the direction that the cable was sent and attached to and then pulling the cable of the GB back to shot it again to switch trajectories. If Izuku wasn't too focused on mastering OFA, then he would say that he was having a blast at the moment with this experience. Izuku was not an adrenaline junkie, but this rush of speed while he was flying in the air was getting him fired up for some reason.

This exercise with Gran Torino was designed for students with a quirk that allowed a person to fly and he was trying to fly through rings in the air like this was a video game. Izuku was repeating this particular aerial circuit in order to get a feel for his gear while also testing how much power it could endure when he used Gale. The self-repairing fabric of the wingsuit could endure the maximum amount of power that he could muster at the moment and the parachute worked as was intended.

He had a couple of ideas that came to his head while he was using the GB to grapple into a part of a building to accelerate in that direction and Izuku realized that maybe he could expand the GB's functionality by allowing Izuku to do some rappelling by adding a harness with a customized tether to his suit that could be attached to the cable shot by the GB or even see if he could upgrade the GB to allow Izuku to travel through two locations at high speed by either firing another cable that could attach itself into another place to create a zip line or something like that, he was at the moment going through the first idea that came to his mind and needed to cool of a little before actually developing that thing in his head.

Izuku was too busy with his own exercises to pay attention to Kinoko and the others' exercises that they were doing today, The rescue training race that they were doing at the moment was being done between the two classes to compare their results between their students as far as he was concerned when he stoped to rest.

"How do you feel, Midoriya? Are those new additions to your gear working as expected?" All Might said. They were just taking a 10-minute break before the last race of the heroics class for the day and All Might saw that izuku was just talking with Gran Torino.

"Yes..., the gliding mod is...performing better than I expected..." Izuku said. From what he had been told, the gliding mod was developed in I-Ialnsd by a man called David Shield who was one of All Might's previous sidekicks in America before All Might returned to Japan.

"I'm glad..., some liberties were taken to streamline your original design while allowing the final product to be as functional as you wanted." All Might said.

"I get it..., the people of the gear developing side of... the heroic business are the ones...that had the...technical knowledge to... to... " Izuku tried to say, but he locked up again. All Might was sad to see this, but at least Izuku was making enough progress to at least talk in some capacity after the mess of the sports festival.

"Midoriya..." All Might said, Izuku sighted and just shook his head before looking back to his grappling hook gun.

"Midoriya was talking about trying to add a couple of details to the suit in order to accommodate a theoretical expansion of the functionality of that "thing" of his that is a grappling gun." Gran Torino said while pointing at that gaudy and extravagant device that Izuku was using as a grappling hook gun. he was a little surprised about the liberties that the girl from the third year who ended up making the support tool took with the outside design, but Izuku let the issue drop by telling that as long as it got the job done, then he was willing to let things like that slide, he also liked the whole aesthetic and decided to give it a try.

"Anything idea in mind, Midoriya?" All Might asked. izuku nodded to his question but then All Might realized that there were only two minutes left from this break and then he told Izuku that they would talk later.

When All Might returned to the other students of both classes to continue his class, he was about to tell the two last students of both classes to participate in the race, but then Eraserhead decided to talk.

"Since this is the last race of the day between both classes, why shouldn't we let Midoriya participate alongside those four students?" Eraserhead said, and that caught everyone by surprise, even Izuku who was discussing with Gran Torino something at the moment reacted with confusion.

"...?" Izuku turned his body to face the man who was his homeroom teacher in the past and had no real desire to entertain that man's request at all.

"What are you scheming, Eraserhead?" Gran Torino said and pretty much said what izuku had in mind. That man had shown much hostility and bias against Izuku for Izuku to listen to that man in any situation that was not on the field doing any heroic-related job.

"Nothing. I just wanted to..." Eraserhead tried to say before All Might looked at him and that made the man shut up. All Might then looked at Izuku before opening his mouth.

"Midoriya?" All Might said. Izuku then closed his eyes before he decided to say one thing.

"Fine..." Izuku said and the students of 1-A felt a small feeling of hope. Izuku didn't had any real desire to do this, but might as well get this over with and get some more training with Gale without using his new tools. he then looked at Gran Torino before the old hero just told him to go for it.

Gran Torino had taken upon the role of a teacher for any kind of physical exercise with his quirk and Izuku listened to the man when he told him to either leave it for the day or that he could continue to train some more. If Gran Torino was fine with him doing this, then Izuku was going to try it.

"Very well..., then let me give you a quick summary about this exercise before joining this last race." All Might said. He then gave Izuku a quick explanation about what this rescue race was and then he joined the students that were on the starting line.

Izuku moved then to where the students of class 1-B were and then the 5 participants got ready for the signal to be given to start.

“Begin!” All Might said and then the race started. The four students that weren't izuku ran as fast as they could while taking advantage of their physical fitness or quirks to reach the goal.

Hanta Sero and Fumikage Tokoyami got a head start in the race and left behind the other three students, Jurota Shishida and Setsuna Tokage were a little slower on the uptake and tired to play catch up.

Izuku on the other hand waited 20 seconds before breaking into a short sprint that ended with izuku jumping into the air. before anyone asked what he was doing, Izuku moved the leg that was the highest in the air and then he used Gale to bounce himself in the air to jump his way to the goal at high speed while gaining enough altitude to not hit the other participants by accident.

Izuku had been practicing since he returned from the internship week with Gale and more or less had it figured out. after a couple of sessions, Izuku realized that his body levitated a little when he wanted to use Gale and then he took advantage of that small levitation to get that first impulse into the air with ease. He did found inspiration in platformer videogames and decided to see if the most basic maneuvers of those kinds of videogames were something that izuku could pull off with Gale, and Izuku was surprised to see that he could pull a lot of those moves in real life.

From double jumping to jumping very high in the air or while he was airborne, to dashing in one direction with one single step to even back dashing in one single step. Izuku's mobility was greatly expanded with the usage of a low percentage of OFA power while he was using Gale. There were a couple of things that were out of his reach at the moment, and for that he decided to add the gliding mod to his suit and the GB as a grappling hook gun, there was a possibility in the future that he could do those things without his new gear, but it never hurted at all to still had his gear upgraded to do those things without his quirk.

So Izuku jumped multiple times in the air in order to redirect himself to land near the finishing line to win this race, almost all the students of both classes and the teachers that were there were surprised and some of them were horrified. Only those who were personally involved with Izuku were aware of this progress and were almost proud to see how far he had come with his training.

Kinoko Komori was a little less surprised than the others because she knew a little about Izuku's training and development when they talked in the forest, this was the first time that she saw in person how Izuku did those things, but in comparison to the others, she was better informed. Izuku did learn a lot about mushrooms thanks to Kinoko and told her that the next time that he wanted to rework his suit or add something, then he would ask for her help.

Izuku ended winning the race by reaching the objective in less than two minutes, the other students were stunned to see how izuku reached the goal that fast, and in the end, that shock caused the students of 1-A to lose their focus during the race to the point that they reached the goal last.

"..." The students of 1-A saw how much progress Izuku made with his quirk after abandoning class 1-A and his connection with them. They remembered how Izuku injured himself when using his quirk and to see how getting away from Eraserhead made Izuku get so capable with his quirk to the point that he outperformed them all with ease.

"Hmm..., not bad, but I still have...room to... improve" Izuku said in a low tone of voice. Only Kyoka Jiro heard that and then they saw how he moved to get near Kinoko Komori to interact with her while ignoring his ex-classmates. To see how Izuku was showing anything more than a neutral and stoic expression on his face when talking to someone who wasn't anyone of them did hurt their bruised ego.

They never remembered Izuku being like that when they talked with him in the past, but at the same time, they weren't that close to begin with. Uraraka, Iida, and Asui did try to become friends with Izuku, but their efforts were almost in vain with the combination of the whole month of constant training and Kirishima's fanfiction about Bakugo's supposed heart of gold winning them over. Those videos showed the truth about Izuku and Bakugo and with that truth, it came the realization that none of them knew them at all. Bakugo's true character was the one of a school bully who got a constant pass to his villainous character even in U.A. thanks to his quirk being heroic enough to make people ignore his true disgusting self. Izuku was not a lazy person who never bothered to train his quirk during his whole life like some of them thought in the past but a rare late bloomer who was still figuring out things while trying to become a hero, someone who had got the support that he need in the past before the sports festival happened, then maybe he would still be in class 1-A with them, but things didn't went like that.

Izuku didn't had the support of a caring teacher to develop in the past neither had the companionship that none of them wanted to give to Izuku aside for a select few that in the end had those efforts rendered useless thanks to Kirishima's attempts to make Bakugo's opinion that they had on him to improve to make the other to try to be friendly with a kid that mocked and belittled them, all of that because Kirishima had a moment with Bakugo fighting together against villains in the USJ and that impressed Kirishima enough to try to sway his way into making everyone's opinion of Bakugo to improve to get his "bakubro" accepted by the rest.

That costed them not only Izuku's presence in their class and their lives, but also caused some damage to their reputation in the hero community when a lot of people questioned how they were so f*cking blind to not see the truth about Bakugo's villainous character during class. fewer heroes were willing to trust them for that lack of awareness and action even if it was a little hypocritical for the heroic community and society to judge them that severely for that. everyone who allowed Bakugo in the past to get that deranged was far more guilty than them for this situation but they suffered the consequences of not acting like heroes and denouncing Bakugo's vile behavior as villainous to the public.

Class 1-A was losing out students after those days and now that were almost closer to their first final exams in U.A., class 1-A had lost five students at the moment. Bakugo was in Tartarus, Mineta was expelled, Kaminari and Todoroki were in the general course and Kirishima resigned from U.A. after he was unable to endure the silent treatment and the cold shoulder that he received after the realization that this constant vouching of Bakugo's actions and personality was in part responsible for this mess got to his head after one month after the events of the sports festival.

From their point of view, it seemed like they were having a severe run of bad luck. But the truth was... that the game was rigged from the start. The societal biases that all of them were used to see alongside how quickly they accepted Bakugo's behavior even if a lot of them could call foul to Kirishima's arguments of him being a nice guy despite his repulsive personality had cost them the heart of the class and even if the toxic person that was Bakugo was also away from then now, the lack of success from part of Eraserhead efforts to reign in the class had made that the damage already done wasn't capable of healing up. For how long would class 1-A have to suffer?

"..." Izuku was in the forest of U.A., a couple of days had passed since the joint heroic class and Izuku was now reviewing a couple of books that had information about the new addition that he wanted to include in his gear, and this time, Izuku was taking the time to properly investigate the topic to see if those additions were far more trouble than it was worth or they were a proper investment of time. Izuku needed to not let himself being influenced by any cool idea that came to his mind and needed to be more mindful about what could be useful for his heroic work and what was more a recreational thing to do than an asset for his heroic aspirations.

Near where he was, Kinoko was busy creating mushrooms in her vicinity to enjoy their presence for a while. The friendship they both had didn't mean that both of them were going to be there all the time together while they were in the forest, they acknowledged the presence of the other being in the same place and they either minded their own business or talked from time to time about things like their school day, their progress as heroes or other things that weren't related to U.A. or heroic things in general.

Recently, they talked more with each other over doing their own things, Izuku didn't mind that much about that development and he had fun while listening to Kinoko talking about those mushrooms that she liked so much and created with her quirk. Izuku learned a lot about them and decided to use one notebook to take notes about them for future reference, and now when he saw how Kinoko was getting near him, it was clear that they were going to talk for a little while.

"What are you reading now?" Kinoko asked. She remembered seeing Izuku reading something while taking some notes in a notebook about what ended up becoming the gliding mod of his suit. So now that she saw Izuku doing the same thing, then maybe that mean that Izuku was looking into something to add to his suit.

"Kinoko..., I am just... researching things about... mountain climbing and some...devices that are...used there" Izuku said and then he decided to show the book that he was reading to her.

"I see..., do you have something in mind? or this is to get some references for any future tool?" Kinoko asked.

"Both..., I want to...expand the...GB's functionality" izuku said. He then picked the book back and then showed Kinoko one particular page that talked about rappelling and ziplining.

"Ohh..., so you want to either see if your grappling hook gun could be modified to allow you to do those two things or something like that?" Kinoko asked and the she saw how Izuku nodded at her question.

"That or..., just getting a new support item...that could do that..." Izuku said. He had made a lot of progress in his steps to talk back again, but he still had those moments in which he got silent out of nowhere, at least now he needed less time to talk again after going silent.

"That sounds great! Maybe I should think about getting one of those things for myself. The way you talked about how fun and effective way to move around with one of those things was made me curious about it." Kinoko said.

"I see.., is not as easy... as it sounds... and you need some...practice and reflexes to...properly use one, but it pays off" Izuku said. Izuku was surprised over the fact that he mastered the usage of the grappling hook gun that fast, it was almost like it was natural for him.

Said mastery came alongside some weird dreams about a guy with a bandolier using his quirk to travel in the air with some black tendrils made of energy that allow the man to grab into ledges or even walls to move or grab enemies to tie them up or even attack them. He spoke with All Might and Gran Torino about those dreams and they told him about the fact that maybe that was the memories of one of the previous wielders of OFA and izuku was capable for some reason to not only see those memories, but also using the quirks of the past users on his own way.

Flow, Blaze, and Gale were just him using a combination of quirks that were lying dormant inside OFA and Izuku only had knowledge about four of those quirks thanks to All Might's investigation. Float, Smokescreen, Blackwhip, and Danger Sense were the four quirks that izuku knew that exited and he knew that he had been using Danger Sense since the first time that he discovered Flow, but the names and effects of those that came behind Danger Sense were unknown to him even if Izuku knew that he had been using those two quirks the most.

Izuku at this point believed that those dreams and sudden masteries of some skills that he shouldn't possess at the moment were a result of OFA trying to communicate with him. That could explain those humanoid figures inside that box that Izuku saw from time to time while he meditated in the forest.

He didn't knew how to proceed in this issue at the moment and he decided to let things flow through their course for now. Rushing in was not going to help him and he wanted to just take things slow for a while when he was still able to do it. trouble was brewing on the horizon and Izuku needed to be ready for it, but not to the point of stressing over things that could potentially happen. Aside from his body, Izuku needed to train his mind and heart to truly recover from his trauma and to become the hero that he wanted to be now, maybe he couldn't save people with a smile as All Might did, but he could save people while trying to make the world a more safer place for others to live in.

So Izuku's rebuilding his confidence in himself while moving past his trauma was what he needed to do to train his mind, forming bonds with others, and developing meaningful relationships was the only thing in his mind to train his heart, and only one of those was easier to say that to do.

He couldn't connect with those students of his age because he still felt shame and weak when thinking about it and when he tried to turn his thoughts to his classmates, Izuku felt even more vulnerable.

Izuku believed that he made some friends there when he met Uraraka, Iida, and Asui, but when Kirishima was continuously trying to pull Bakugo onto a pedestal while trying to convince others that Bakugo was not that bad of a person, his faith in his new classmates started to crack. At that point, he was almost expecting things to go back as it was before in Aldera, and considering how having a quirk didn't made him more liked by his new teachers, then said paranoia was always there and blew over in the sports festival with that video. A small part of him did want it to at least reconnect with some of them, but he was too afraid at the moment to even try. He needed more time to be able to do that, but izuku wasn't sure if he had that luxury at his side. With those things in mind and Gran Torino's concerns about him needing to socialize with others to heal, is that what pushed Izuku to make contact with Kinoko Komori that day after he intervened when Kaminiari tried to bully her out of the hero course.

Those thoughts were still there even when he was having fun talking with Kinoko about mountain climbing and his ideas for a new support item for him to use.

"..." A couple of days had passed and Izuku was now in Principal Nezu's office because he was being informed about the fact that the area that he wanted to use to train his climbing skills before getting his new gear would be occupied by not only both classes but also four students from another high school for heroes that were going to participate in an exercise that was part of visitation program that U.A had, and the Isamu Academy High School was taking their turn to participate in said program.

"As you can see..., the Ground Omega would be used for that particular exercise and I can't allow you to be there on your own even if you would only stay near that small elevation of the terrain in said area to train your climbing skills. I know that you wouldn't interfere with the others during that exercise, but it would be for the best to not have you there in case those students from Isamu would think that we are trying to sabotage them during this exercise by having you there minding your own business." Nezu said. he had received the new design for Izuku's new expansion of his suit and that new support item that he had designed with the help of that student of the third year, In the meantime, Izuku wanted to get the basis of climbing down just in case that he needed those skills one day.

Nezu was sad to deny Izuku the chance to develop his skills into something that the mammal actually considered something that would be a good thing for other students to learn, but Nezu took seriously his compromise with other schools and would had to tell Izuku that he would have to do that other day.

"You could participate in that exercise, and when it's done, you would be allowed to use Ground Omega to train to your leisure until is time to go home." Nezu then offered to Izuku that choice. Izuku thought about it and then decided to give his answer.

"Fine..., that sounds reasonable" Izuku said.

"Splendid, I will inform you about what will happen tomorrow so you won't be caught by surprise." Nezu said he then showed izuku the papers that Isamu Academy High School sent to U.A. about their students that would participate in this exercise and Izuku read those papers and the descriptions of their quirks.

There was something about one of those students' face photos that made Izuku think that it would be a bad idea for him to participate and he told Nezu his worries. Nezu tried to alleviate his worries, but the moment that he looked at that smug and condescending expression Romero Fujimi had on his face, Izuku's mind started to think about Bakugo, and if a person gave him those vibes, then he was not going to even bother to deal with them.

In the end, Izuku caved in and ended up deciding to participate in the joint exercise alongside class 1-A, class 1-B, and those 4 students from that other school. He just hoped that the day ended going without any incidents, but it was unlikely since that kid that gave him those Bakugo vibes was going to f*ck this one up, Izuku could feel it in his bones. He was going to apply that rule of three with people and unless they proved him wrong, then they were a facsimile of Bakugo in his eyes.

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

The next day came and the students of Isamu Academy High School reached the school gates of U.A., the exercise that they were going to do today was just a team survival training exercise in Ground Omega.

With Izuku joining the group, the number of participants was now 40 so they would split into groups of 4 and they would try to defeat the other teams and the last one standing would win. The students from Isamu were going to be in one team and to make things interesting, the students from U.A. were going to be teamed up in a format that was 2 students from 1-A and 2 students from 1-B in almost every team except from the one in which Izuku was.

Izuku's team was composed of Kinoko Komori and other two students from 1-B. Those who were Izuku's friends in 1-A were sad to see that. The divide that Izuku put between them was as wide and deep as the void that Izuku's getting out of class 1-A had left in their lives. In one or two moments that Izuku aimlessly gazed in their direction, at least Uraraka and Asui could see in Izuku's glare a hint of sadness before he averted his sight to another place. The atmosphere in the whole group of students was quite tense and that was thanks to the cheap facsimile of Bakugo that the Isamu Academy brought to U.A. to participate in this exercise.

Romero Fujimi was acting in a way that was making Izuku realize that his hunch about that kid being as reprehensible as Bakugo was 100% correct. He threw snarky and mean-spirited remarks and quips at all of them and it was clear that he believed that he was better that anyone else in this group despite the fact that his quirk was as villainous as his whole character was.

Izuku decided to be far more judgemental of people now after years of deluding himself into thinking that Bakugo was a good person and while he was not going to judge people for the villainous connotation of their quirks, Izuku was sure as hell that he was not giving any pass to those kinds of people now as he did in the past. Romero Fujimi had proven that he was not a hero with his actions and his personality. His quirk, and whatever discrimination that he could have faced in the past for those villainous connotations was no excuse for being a scumbag like he was with the others students that were not from his school.

"Midoriya...?" Kinoko asked Izuku, she saw that Izuku had an unfocused gaze and started to get worried.

"Huhh? Hmm..., I'm fine” Izuku replied to her words. All of them heard from one of the drones in the air that the signal to start was given and all of them entered in Ground Omega. Izuku took a deep breath and then entered alongside Kinoko and her classmates to participate in this exercise, for the safety of others, Izuku was going to pull his punches just in case. He was confident enough in his self-restraint to not lose his cool and slip into Blaze by mistake. He may had more control of that mental state thanks to his training, but the last thing that he needed was to fly into a rage and kill someone by mistake. Izuku found it too troublesome to keep himself in check under the effects of Blaze and that made his training to master that technique a chore.

In the observation tower in the Ground Omega, Eraserhear, Vlad King and a teacher from Isamu were monitoring the whole thing while All Might was taking a break. Izuku did pointed out that All Might not needed to be there monitoring the whole event if the two homeroom teachers from both classes and a teacher who was responsible for the kids from Isamu were in the tower. All Might needed to save time with his buff form and it was for the best that All Might sat this one out in order to keep his injuries in secret.

"Is that kid always like that?" Vlad King asked the teacher of Isamu Academy. Eraserhead was now being reminded about how Bakugo acted in class and how he didn't care at all about his personality, how he interacted with others, and how he bullied izuku. Eraserhead ignored all of that because Bakugo's potential as a hero was too good to ignore.

He heard from that teacher that yes, Fujimi had that kind of attitude with the students that weren't in his class, and even in his own class he had some kind of grudge against others, those three students were those that he had the least issues with in comparison, but that didn't saved them from being spared from being targets of any kind of restrain in team excesses in which Fujimi showed that he had no care at all about any kind of friendly fire that his own quirk could cause.

Eraserhead thought that what he heard was completely irresponsible on part of the Isamu Academy to allow a student that careless with his quirk to be allowed to be in the hero course. but then he remembered how he hadn't bothered in the past to admonish Bakugo from overdoing with his explosions in all those training sessions during the month before the sports festival and that realization hit him. He was so judgmental about that kid's actions that were told by that teacher and then he saw on the screens in the control room because he had no real investment in that boy so he could see that his quirk was villainous and that he acted like a villain in the making. He was now being unbiased and rational like he painted himself in the past when he expelled those kids in the past when some of them weren't even as reprehensive as that boy, but their quirks irked him for some reason and then he decided to kick them out from the hero course.

That bias of his made him think that Bakugo had heroic potential while Izuku didn't because he saw too many red flags on Izuku's character that could have made him share Oboro's fate and that also made him take Shinso as his apprentice and to do his supposed job only for him because he empathized with Shinso's struggles and not with his students.

Eraserhead, at last, realized that he was unable to empathize with any of them because none of them shared anything that could make him put himself in their shoes unless it was Shinso, whose story and situation was too close to home for him and that made him to truly connect with Shinso. He never read those files of those students that could had contained any sort of info that could have made Eraserhead pay more attention to any kid in the past because he was too uncaring and exhausted from his responsibilities of being an underground hero to even make the effort. He was not made at all to be a teacher for any hero students because of those reasons and now he was trapped in a situation in which his lack of talent in the teaching field was his downfall, Eraserhead decided to talk with Nezu to just quit from being a teacher even if that meant to not being a hero anymore. After all, he hadn't been a hero for those kids whose lives he ruined with his lack of empathy and understanding of their situation, and he was sure that he was no better now than a villain at this point. The only good thing that he could do for class 1-A and Izuku was to stay away from their lives and to accept the punishment for his constant failures that was the loss of his license as a hero.

"...!" Izuku looked at his surroundings and saw how students of both classes and those two girls of Isamu Academy who fell victim to that boy's quirk were surrounding them. His new group consisted of Kinoko, Tokage, Uraraka, and himself as the remaining students that were unaffected by the gas by chance.

Setsuna Tokage split her head from her body as a last resort to avoid being infected by one of her classmate's bites and even then she felt how that zombifying gas quirk was starting to take effect.

"Th..row...me aw...ayyyyy..." Setsuna started to groan like she was a zombie and Izuku saw how her detached head was starting to turn into a zombie.

"Please Tokage! Hold on!" Kinoko said while panicking a little, this situation was starting to get onto her and izuku was the one that was trying to find a solution.

Izuku was feeling that hostile intent from that student from Isamu Academy and while Izuku was unable to quickly run at the bastard to bash his head against the ground, but Izuku could do something else.

Izuku grabbed a rock in the ground and then decided to pull one of the previous tricks that he used before he got better control of OFA and then he flickered three of his fingers in order to shoot that rock in the direction that he sensed that hostile presence and the rock flew with enough force to break the mask of that boy that prevented him from being affected by his own quirk.

"f*ck! My mask is broken! Who did this!? Who was that f*cking, pathetic, and coward piece of sh*t that di...!?" Romero Fujimi said. That rock destroyed his mask and made a little gash on one of his cheeks, which enraged him to the point that he thew a fit, said fit distracted him from the flying head of a zombified Setsuna Tokage that then bit his other cheek with her sharp teeth that and not only injured him even more but also zombified him as well.

"We need... to run..." Izuku said. He looked at Kinoko and Uraraka and both of them decided to run away until the quirk effects of that boy quirk did ran out of time. By the time that the students from U.A. and those two girls were returned to normal. Those two girls from Isamu did found themselves surrounded by a group of 36 students from U.A. who weren't amused at all about what happened.

"You two... please, surrender" Momo Yaoyorozu said. At this point, all the students from U.A. that were there decided on the spot to get those students from Isamu Academy out of this exercise. The girls decided to just comply quietly just in case, the students form U.A. weren't as barbaric as to beat them into the ground, but they were upset enough to attack them without pulling any punches if they were allowed to it.

They made the point about how they felt by dragging them all to the entrance of Ground Omega, Setsuna Tokage brought the whole group to where the other two students were when her head reunited with her own body and they saw how those boys faces were showing signs of being bitten by someone with sharp teeth.

The exercise was canceled at the half-hour mark when the students of U.A. decided that they weren't going to deal with the students of Isamu Academy anymore. The insults that Romero Fujimi was throwing at them when he was tied up in the entrance alongside those that he spewed the first time that they met almost caused the students from U.A. to get physical with the boy, the only thing that stopped them was Izuku entering in the scene and that surprised the students of U.A.

"Enough...! " Izuku said, the students of both classes saw how Uraraka and Kinoko were coming from behind him and now everyone was there.

Izuku saw how that bastard who spits in what it meant to be a hero with his actions looked with scorn at him, and considering that he also dedicated some insults and mean-spirited words at him even if izuku ignored his presence, then it was clear that Fujimi was about to insult him.

"I don't need a f*cking weakling bitch such as you to intervene! I can take all of you pathetic bitches down!" Fujimi said. Izuku sighted at that voice and then he decided just to extend his right arm and then he decided to flicker three of his fingers to release a small gust of wind that shoved Romero Fujimi into a wall nearby with enough force to incapacitate him.

"As long as people...as villainous as you...are allowed to be in the hero course...then we will never...advance as a society" Izuku said while looking at the three students of Isamu Academy. the other boy was about to talk, but izuku decided to say one last thing in case that boy attempted to pull a Kirishima.

"Actions speak louder...than words. and someone that had...insulted us since the first moment...that he laid eyes on us, had used his quirk to even affect his own..." friends", and is too prideful to...even admit defeat...to the point that he is...still insulting us. Then all those actions makes me think...that he is a villain. So spare me...any kind of attempt to say that he...is not a bad person, because you would be lying to me... in my face" Izuku said with some difficulty and it was clear in his tone of voice that he was not going to even entertain that boy's argument.

The mood of the whole group had been soured since the beginning of the day thanks to the actions of one participant from Isamu Academy and it was clear that the students of classes 1A and 1B didn't want to deal with Isamu Academy students anymore. They had reached the end of their patience and Romero Fujimi's actions hadn't made him endear himself to the others, even Izuku wanted to call it a day to relax after this mess, this poor man's Bakugo had done as Izuku expected and ruined everything for the others.

It was clear that the visitation program of U.A. had failed today to fulfill its purpose thanks to the actions of Romero Fujimi that had let the students from U.A. to not only fail to connect with the other participants in this program to have a friendly competition, but now they wanted them out of their sight.

Isamu Academy High School was really close to losing its spot in the visitation program from U.A. and some of the arrangements that they had with U.A. and it was only because this was the first time that they screw this up that made Nezu gave them one more chance, but some of those privileges were going to take a hit after the shameful conduct of Fujimi that made Nezu remember how Bakugo acted and how that mess ended.

A day had passed since that disaster during the joint exercise with the students from Isamu Academy and since it was Sunday, Izuku was lazing around at home while letting his mind wander to see if he could understand what happened to him during that event.

It was a subtle thing that Izuku felt in a way but was too angry to care, in those moments, but he felt how his body in a way expelled some of that anger that was clouding his mind in a near-transparent cloud of smoke that was being fired off from his own skin. That weird sensation stuck to him and then after coolingoff at home, Izuku realized that he had somehow activated Smokescreen in a way, but instead of creating a smoke cloud..., he just vented his anger like he was sweating it out in a sauna.

The callous actions of Romero Fujimi went from constantly insulting them without provocation at all to even targeting his own allies with his quirk angered Izuku to the point that he almost expected Blaze to trigger on its own and to make Izuku violently rush at that villain freak in order to beat him to death. but it appears that Smokescreen came in clutch to save the day by giving Izuku a way to not only quickly reduce the output of power that he was using with OFA but also allowing Izuku to prevent his anger from getting the better of him by forcing that anger out of his body like it was hot air.

A thing like that for a lot of heroes would be a bad thing, the whole quickly powering down doesn't sound like a good thing, but in Izuku's situation, maybe that option was actually a good thing to have. To vent his anger in a non-aggressive way so his anger wouldn't overwhelm him in the worst moment was a boon for Izuku in his desire to master his Blaze technique, said technique that clouded his mind in anger the more power that he accumulated. So a panic button to chill the f*ck up was a valuable thing to possess in his opinion.

Izuku didn't knew if he should give that thing a name like he did with the other techniques that he discovered now that he knew that he was just using a quirk that was inside OFA in a way that was not really supposed to be. He decided to just take a quick nap for a while before making that decision.

"That box..." Izuku said, he had fallen asleep and saw that box inside of him that was now starting to show even more cracks than before. at this point, Izuku was able to see the vestiges that were inside OFA now with little in the way. maybe because this was more of a mental world than the real one, but that box was still standing in place despite missing chunks of it that would in a normal situation compromise its stability.

Izuku for the first time tried to move from his position while he was in that mental world to reach those vestigues, but he found a new issue. He felt how when he got close to the box, his conscience started to vanish. he then felt how he passed out in that inner world and then he woke up in the real world.

It appeared that his attempts to reach OFA were going to fail at the moment unless that metal box that was the manifestation of his trauma was fully destroyed. His path to fully recovering from his trauma was still a long way to go even if he had made a lot of progress in a way. his small “conversation” with Uraraka in the forest the other day was proof that he still needed some more time to recover. Izuku took a deep breath and then he remembered how that chat went the other day.

"We are safe here...for now" Izuku said. both the girls and him ran as fast as they could in order to reach one of the clears of the forest in Ground Omega that allowed them to spot the zombified classmates from a distance.

"Tokage..." Kinoko softly said, she felt really awful after abandoning her even if it was at her request and she still remembered how Setsuna's head was about to bite one of her fingers, but then Izuku grabbed Setsuna's detached head by the hair, and threw it to where that villainous boy was.

"We aren't...prepared for a...zombie apocalypse... by the looks of...it." Izuku said. he was still upset over the fact that the boy from Isamu Academy with a zombifying gas quirk had used his powers without caring if his own classmates were in the way by the looks of it. not caring at all about any kind of collateral damage that your quirk could do was clear proof in izuku's mind that their Romero Fujimi kid was a villain.

Ochako Uraraka was silently staring at Izuku while trying to talk to him, but she was still having trouble. She remembered how it was her comment about how Deku sounded cute and that made Izuku to allow himself to be referred to by that name in class even if he knew the true connotations of that demeaning nickname that Bakugo used to call him.

With some hindsight, the whole thing showed that Izuku was in a way starved of any kind of positive interaction with people that he was willing to accept that insult if that meant that he would have a genuine friend on his side. those genuine friends that refused to take his side on the cavalry race except her. She may had stuck at his side in those moments, but she was the one who in a way made izuku to humiliate himself with the nickname if that meant that he would have a friend.

Her heart was crushed when Eraserhead told them all that they should stay away from him after the sports festival, and said should evolved to the threat of expulsion after Mineta's actions. She had futilely tried to find Izuku during free periods in the past even if that meant that she would be expelled if that meant that she could at least interact with him, and now that she was in that position to interact with Izuku, then she found herself unable to utter a single word out of shame that she felt for letting him down.

"..." Izuku did sensed in those moments how Uraraka looked at Izuku with sadness and some guilt in her eyes, and he also was unable to even think of something to say at the moment, his feelings on the subject were now clear and he hated how weak and helpless he felt at the moment.

Izuku knew that she didn't knew at all about the meaning of the nickname that Bakugo gave to him and in a way he gave her permission to call him that because he felt in those moments that she wasn't being mean to him when she called him that, but now those thoughts weren't there and he felt upset with her even if she wasn't guilty of what made Izuku upset at the moment. At some point, before they decided to return to the entrance of the Ground Omega, Izuku summoned enough courage to just talk with Uraraka to at least let her know how he felt.

"Uraraka..." Izuku said. That caught her by surprise and she tried to get near Izuku, but he then shuddered when she got close and then she took one step back.

"I'm sorry..., but not yet..., I am not...strong enough for...this" Izuku said. he heard how Uraraka almost choked on her tears, but Izuku felt too weak and vulnerable at the moment and if being near someone who was the most friendly person in 1-A in the past but called him by that nickname got him that upset, then he was not ready for taking that step.

In the joint class exercise the other day, Izuku was more or less able to keep his head in the exercise and was able to push those feelings aside, but he couldn't do that in this situation now. Izuku felt guilty after hearing those tears, but there was nothing that he could do at the moment unless he was able to truly move from all that happened.

in the end, Izuku talked with All Might and Gran Torino about how that went, and for the time being, he was not going to interact with class 1-A for a while during class hours unless Izuku felt comfortable enough to do it, he would still interact with class 1-B thanks to the fact that his friendship with Kinoko Komori had been a positive thing that helped Izuku in a way in his recovery.

Izuku was frustrated in a way about how that went, but he remembered the words that Hound Dog said to him and then he decided to not get that obsessed about that failure.

"The injuries that a body sustains can heal up easily thanks to the advances of the medicine and healing quirks that are all around us, but the injuries to a person's mind are harder to treat even with mental quirks. Those injuries are the worst because even if they heal, the pain in a way always stays there. So don't fret because you can't make quick progress at some point with your recovery or feel upset because you think that you are failing. The best way to heal your mind is to not force yourself to heal faster than you really need and just let things go on as they come to you, if you have to take a step back because something is not working, then take it and don't be ashamed from doing it." Izuku remembered those words and then resigned himself to this slow pace of his recovery at the moment. In the end, things had to run their course like the water that flows through a river and he shouldn't try to force that metaphoric river to either carry more water or to divert its course. he would have to let nature take its course and adapt to what would come to him in the future.

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

In Ground Beta, after a couple of days passed after the events on the Ground Omega. The students of class 1-B were seeing during their heroic class with All Might of that day how Izuku was practicing new forms of movement in the urban buildings in multiple ways. From using his bare hands that were covered by new gloves that Izuku was wearing now to climb the walls with ease, using his grappling hook gun to quickly move from one point to another, and then showing a new support item that he was using to either descend a building by creating a temporary spot in a rooftop to rappel down in a slower but more precise manner or to use that temporary spot to then shot a cable in another direction to zipline his way to another lower rooftop.

Some of the students were partially jealous over the fact that Izuku was allowed to do all of that while having all that access to those tools, but as Kinoko knew now thanks to Izuku, those things weren't precisely out of their reach if they asked. Those kinds of support items were almost generic in a way and aside from a couple of weeks of training that a student had to do in order to be given permission to use it, there was nothing in the way for them to ask one.

it was just that everyone was to obsessed with their quirks and the support tools that they could use to improve them that nobody that actually needed a grappling hook gun for their quirks to work asked for one. Hell, some of the most effective underground heroes used grappling hook guns to enhance their mobility regardless of what their quirks could do.

Kinoko saw how Izuku landed on the ground while he was rappelling down a building that was near her and some of her classmates who were taking a break and then she decided to talk with him.

"Midoriya. How's it hanging?" Kinoko said. Izuku looked at her for a couple of seconds before chucking a little.

"Heh..., not bad. Just testing this..." Izuku said and then he decided to show Kinoko one of his new support tools, it was a strange rectangle that was the result of four metal sticks that had the design of golden greek pillars that were welded together at first glance, the corners of that rectangle looked like the smaller heads of lions that shared the same aesthetics as the rest of the device and Kinoko could appreciate a metallic glint when she looked warily inside one of those heads.

"Did the same...?" Kinoko wanted to ask if the student who made this for him was the one who made that extravagant grappling hook gun that izuku used. Izuku nodded at her words while she was midway through her question and then she stopped talking after getting her answer.

"She was inspired...." Izuku said.

"Well..., as long as it works..., then the design could be ignored.... even if that design is really...gaudy in a way." Kinoko said. She had some understanding of fashion and she was feeling a little overstimulated after seeing those two extravagant and gaudy support tools that Izuku used.

"You may be right..., but I like them in a way..., they have soul... if that makes sense." Izuku said. Sure, those things were too much for him sometimes, but he met the student who made those tools for him and he was impressed with her commitment to those extravagant designs and he felt that she put her soul into those tools to the point that they were also a form to express herself and her tastes in her craft.

"Soul...? Sure, let's call it that..." Kinoko said. she was not really convinced, but since those were Izuku's tools and he liked them in the end, then she dropped the issue. Their conversation moved along a little to more casual topics before Kinoko and Izuku parted ways because they needed to continue with their training. there was less than a month before the final exams and they needed to take their time in class seriously enough to not fail.

In the principal office in U.A., three individuals were discussing about how Izuku would do his final exams. Nezu had been following Izuku's progress after he got him in that special class and was surprised and disappointed at equal measure.

The surprise came because Izuku had made progress with mastering OFA and his physical performance was at the level of a third-year on the hero course after those months of intense but tailored training that was designed to help Izuku's progress while also pushing him to an acceptable level of challenge. Gran Torino's decision to return to U.A. to take over Izuku's training had been a blessing. The old hero worked with Izuku and was preparing exercise after exercise that was perfectly tailored to what the man considered appropriate for Izuku to do at the moment. Izuku was properly pushed to perform better during those exercises but never to the point that he could hurt himself. The disappointment came on the fact that this kind of untapped potential to develop had been wasted in U.A. thanks to U.A. actions and a traitours voice in the mammal mind was telling him that their actual situation could had gone better if he had paid more attention to the situation and had instead sent Izuku to 1-B. Vlad King may had pushed the idea on their students about a rivalry with their sister class that some of them took out of context, but Vlad King had more experience with dealing with students with quirks difficult to control and he could have helped Izuku to progress even if the knowledge about OFA had to be kept under wraps as a security concern.

The issue with Eraserhead was resolved in a way by Eraserhead himself. He had chosen to stay away from the students of 1-A and was willing to resign as a teacher and even hero because, in the end, his actions had caused far more damage than good during his tenure there as a homeroom teacher who had expelled multiple kids for no real reason in the end. In the end, a compromise was reached and Eraserhead would only deal with the students who were more or less capable of dealing with his standards, that meant that he would work only with the third-year students, they were already tried and tested so Eraserhead had no excuse at that point to at least spar with the kids with little complains.

"Fighting could be a way to test him..., Flow and Blaze may give Midoriya a massive edge in combat, but Midoriya's lack of real combat experience without them could hamper him..." Gran Torino said. Izuku had spared with him and some other teachers while not being allowed to use OFA, but that kind of controlled fight was not the same as a real fight against someone who wanted to kill you.

"I can see that. Also, I believe that our hero students this year should be more combat-ready after what happened in the USJ this year. The League of Villains had may gone silent at the moment, but unless I am 100% sure that they are out of the streets, then I will still consider them as a threat that is still capable of baring their fangs at us again at the worst possible moment" Nezu said. The other heroes that were on the streets and the underground heroes that paid close attention to the underbelly of society weren't able to find a clue about their next move.

"...i do have something to say." All Might said. the injured hero had been taking his responsibilities as a teacher seriously and after a long-needed talk with Gran Torino about what happened after Nana's death and how both coped with the event. they both tried their best to not commit the same mistakes that they did in the past and now All Might had an idea about how to proceed.

"Go ahead, any suggestion that would give us a way to advance in this situation is good" Nezu said.

"Thank you...., I want to say that in my opinion, we shouldn't let the other heroic-related activities aside for the sake of a more combat-focused exam. I agree with the concerns about the League of Villains, but to let their knowledge about how to proceed in the field untested for the sake of fully gauging their combat capabilities could be a mistake." All Might said. He let the principal hear his words before Nezu decided to give a appropriate response to a logical and sensible argument.

"Your concerns are understandable, the whole issue that caused the scandal of Bakugo's past and how the allowance of someone like him who disregarded heroics for the sake of his bloodlust was looked up as a potential hero solely for his quirk flashiness still stings U.A.., but still, I consider that our students need to be prepared to fight those dangerous villains that are in the shadows waiting to strike." Nezu said. All Might's argument was solid, but the threat of the League of Villains was too much to be ignored.

"I don't deny that, but I believe that their final exam in heroics should be more encompassing about the details that made a hero a hero, I don't say that we shouldn't test their combat capabilities, but that we should make a proper effort to see if what they had learn in class about things like how rescue operations are done and how to work alongside the police or other heroes should be something that needs to be tested as well." All Might said. Nezu looked at the man for a couple of seconds, letting that idea enter his head and then he decided to let him continue.

"I looked to past exams done inside U.A., and after looking at one particular exam format that was controversial, I thought that maybe if said exam is tweaked a little, then it could help us to fully gauge our students' potential." All Might words then enticed Nezu enough to allow him to say what he had in mind.

"The Heroes vs Villains exam had been quite controversial in the past to the point that multiple students ended up quitting U.A. after the exam was over and I think that the concept in on itself is good, but maybe we should try a different approach with that exam." All Might said.

"Hmmm..., what do you have in mind then?" Nezu said, his curiosity being aroused by that idea and then he waited for all might to say his idea.

“Well...”

There was a sense of dread in the students of the first year in the heroic course. The only thing that they knew about their final exams was that it would be two whole weeks dedicated not only to testing the knowledge that they had learned in classes but also to putting what they learned in the heroics class and training sessions with their quirks and their internships as hero sidekicks to the test.

There was no use in asking the students of the other years because they would also taking that new test that U.A. wanted to push, they were told that they would be admonished if they shared any information with their younger classmates, and since they would be taking that new test earlier that the first year students, then both Izuku and the heroic courses of the first years were going blind into that exam.

"Do you know something? Midoriya?" Kinoko asked to Izuku, she was surprised to see him in U.A. main building at the moment considering that he spent almost all his time in the forest or Ground Omega.

"I don't have a solid clue..., but I have a possible idea..." Izuku said. He had been talking with Gran Torino when the topic of the exam that he had to do as his final exam and the old hero words gave him something to think about it.

"Ohhh? and what is it?" Kinoko said.

"Well..., take what I am going to say..., with a grain of salt, but Gran Torino talked about the idea... of an encompassing exam that could make us... test and review our knowledge and competence in...some of the fields of heroism" Izuku said. He remembered how Gran Torino told him about the idea of an exam that could make them act as proper sidekicks in a simulated scenario and then being scored based on their performance.

"Hmm..., that sounds interesting" The voice of Setsuna Tokage reached their ears and izuku just turned to see how that girl that he partially interacted with in the whole Ground Omega fiasco after almost all the teams on U.A. were zombified was alongside a ginger girl that was the class representative of 1-B and that black haired girl that was almost as quiet as he was were now near them.

"Ohh..., it's you girls" Kinoko said, she acknowledged her classmates' presentence, and then she watched how Itsuka Kendo decided to talk.

"Hello there, you two..., sorry for interrupting, but the topic of your conversation picked our interests. The whole final exams and how the principal told us all that it would be something new is keeping us all a little on the edge" Itsuka Kendo said.

"It's okay..., I get it..." Izuku said. The atmosphere became a little awkward after that. Only Kinoko was able to get Izuku to engage in a conversation at the moment and neither of those three girls found a way to establish a dialogue with Izuku at the moment, that silent demeanor that Izuku had adopted made him a little unapproachable, and even if he was being more social now, that sense of being difficult to approach was still there, even if it was clear that someone that was a shy as Kinoko was had found out a way to overcome that distance with ease.

"...sorry." Izuku said while he looked at Setsuna.

"Huh?" Setsuna replied, she didn't expect for Izuku to just say that to her for no reason.

"Sorry..., for the whole...throwing your head far away...during the exercise with...the students of Isamu Academy..." Izuku said.

"Why are you apologizing?" Setsuna said, she was confused in a way, izuku hadn't done anything to her that was worthy of an apology.

"I feel that I... failed you when I threw...your head at that boy... I abandoned you in a way even...even If...I..." Izuku tried to say, but he locked up again, he was a little annoyed over the fact that when he tried to talk with someone new there was a chance for him to lose the ability to speak for a while.

"Ohh..., you mean about that thing? No problem man, I'm cool with it..., I mean, you didn't have too much of a choice in the matter and I told you to throw my head away to prevent my zombified head from biting you three in that day. So don't apologize for that, you did what you could and things went well anyways, so don't worry." Setsuna said, trying to alleviate whatever guilt Izuku had, she then saw how izuku pulled out a notebook and wrote something in it. she then was handed the notebook and read that message.

"Ohhh..., that is sweet in a way, but you should not blame yourself for things that were out of your control. You were forced to make a hard choice and even if you felt upset about the whole thing, you did the right thing..., and to know that you cared enough to feel upset about what happened despite our minimal contact is heartwarming in a way." Setsuna said. that note contained a quick summary of Izuku's issues about what happened and Setsuna was moved in a way. To see that despite that distant exterior is someone who actually cares a little too much about the others in those situations is comforting in a way, Izuku showed that he cared at her well-being in that situation and that he felt desolated over the fact that he had to let her go for the safety of others at least made her know that Izuku is not a heartless bastard despite his cold exterior, but she guessed that the whole incident of the Sports festivals made to much of a mess in his mind to let him to be that cold with others.

"Yeah..., if I had to work with someone that I don't really know that well yet. I would rather prefer someone who cares for my well-being despite being a little standoffish to someone who is charismatic but would let me on to rot in a time of need." Itsuka said. Sure, a lot of heroes need to be charismatic in order to interact with the public, but she couldn't deny that a lot of heroes are more in the hero business for themselves than for any real calling.

"..." Izuku listened to her words and then he just stood there for a while interacting with them before the classes resumed. before the final exam took place, izuku at least started to be in the U.A. main building a little more in order to interact more with others than to stay in the forest during the free period.

The written exams were being done at the moment and Nezu was busy giving the finishing touches to that new exam that he had tested first with the third-year students. All Might's proposition has a lot of merits and his idea while having some flaws, convinced Nezu to see if, with some changes, that idea of a theoretical final exam of heroism could be the solution that he wanted.

And to his surprise, the exam was quite an enlightening experience. The heroes vs villains exam in the past had a lot of issues that caused the exam to be an unfair mess when barely any student wanted to be put in the villain's team, to the point that the hero team had been severely penalized multiple times in the past for being filled with 39 students and that didn't deter the kids from still being in the heroes team while leaving the villain team with only one member.

All Might idea was to let the kids be in the hero team while some of the teachers and some robots would play the part of the villains in order to get a better view of their progress while also deciding in a way what kind of exercise would be done during the exam.

The teachers would decide what kind of heroic activity would be done and the kids would have the responsibility to resolve those scenarious based on what they learned in heroic class. The exam with the third years was a little more unrestrictive and the teachers were able to keep the students on their toes by quickly switching the exercises on the fly to force them to adapt to a simulated experience of how a competent villain would act.

The students of the first year would had a more limited experience in order to level up the playing field in their favor. The teachers would have to hold back a little in their choices and would not quickly change the situation on the fly to force them to adapt on the fly and the students would have a teacher playing the role of a heroic mentor who would be the one that would direct the kids and give them pointers if needed during the exam. The students of the first year would be treated as hero sidekicks and would be performing in that role in the exam. How they performed and how they resolved the exercises was going to be how they would receive their final score. The teachers that were meant to play the role of the villains during the exam and the hero who would be the heroic mentor in that exam for the first year were already chosen and Nezu was now making sure that the final details of the exam were properly developed.

Nezu had hopes in this particular exam that for the time being was called the hero simulation experience, and he just waited to see how those kids would deal with this exam and how they deal with this week-long exercise that would be a harder repeat of the internship week that they did in the past. Nezu's last decision in this exam for the first years was that Izuku's presence on it would not mean that they would be doing a harder exam to compensate that they had a more competent participant on their side. Izuku's exams were not going to be more advanced and he would be measured to the level that was expected to perform despite the fact that he was now almost performing to the level of a third-year hero student despite his limitation with his quirk.

Gran Torino and All Might wanted to help Izuku to interact again with the students of his age so he could make a lot of progress in his recovery efforts, one single friendship that he made with that girl of 1-B spurred Izuku to talk more and they thought that encouraging izuku to socialize with others was a good idea. Nezu was no sure about that, but since he understood that he lacked the proper understanding of human relationships, then he decided to accept their counsel on the situation and adjuted his plan accordingly.

Nezu saw through one of the cameras in the hallways how izuku was now interacting with some more people of 1-B after they were done with the exam for the day and he just focused on getting things done before the exam. There were still some things that needed to be done before the end of the week and Nezu refused to let things up in the air anymore.

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

The efforts that Nezu had decided that were needed in order to get this new exam realized pushed the creation of a new training ground that was more or less fitted to be habitable just in case.

Ground Sigma. That was the name that was given to this new training area and despite the fact that was almost as similar to the Ground Beta, the purpose of Ground Sigma was different.

Ground Beta and its urban recreation were more focused on the testing of the students and their capabilities in an urban environment, that zone was more or less designed in mind so the students weren't as concerned in case of any destruction of property.

Ground Sigma on the other hand was created with a different purpose in mind, this urban area was designed to be habitable in a way and the idea behind it was to instill in the students a sense of responsibility so they could take into consideration how they use their quirks and how they could damage the environment and how they could affect the civilians if they didn't showed some restrain.

The students of the first year of the hero course were now in the agency in which they would work as hero sidekicks during the exam and now the teacher that was chosen to take the role of the hero mentor was breaking it down for the students. Snipe was chosen for this role because he not only was a good choice for this particular role thanks to his experience as a hero managing an agency before joining U.A., but since he is also a teacher of the heroic class, then he fits the bill perfectly for this exam since the whole exam was more or less a long week heroics class that he would have to conduct in a way for this exam.

Snipe may be more accustomed to dealing with the third-year students, but he was not doing that badly with the students who were a little too green for the man's taste. For Snipe, this would be a more practical class in which he would have to give some more breathing ground to the first years students, but he could deal with it.

So after the basic explanation was done, Snipe decided to group up the students in smaller groups of 6 students and send them to patrol the city while he oversaw the situation from the agency. There was a small control room in the fake agency that only a teacher could access and he would keep an eye on the students while coordinating with the other teachers that were playing the part of the villains. This way the teachers were more or least able to be on the same page to prepare an appropriate scenario for the students to resolve on their own.

Izuku was paired up with Kinoko and other students of 1-B and he pretty much played either a supportive role thanks to his support gear or took a combatant role to stall the teachers in case that they decided to confront the students. When a teacher decided to enter the fray to confront a group of students, they pulled their punches and kept their performance level to a level that it was tough to beat them, but it was feasible. That was something that Nezu decided that the exam needed to had to be able to approve it.

The principal reviewed at the end of the first day how those 6 teams of 6 students each dealt with the five scenarios that they were meant to tackle during the day and aside from the expected students that were a little hot-headed and got co*cky enough for a "villain" to step in to rise up the difficulty, the first day was at least successful enough for Nezu to consider that all the students at least passed with a good score the first day of the heroics exam.

"..." the first day of the exam was over and they had at least two hours before they were encouraged to call it a day. Snipe told them that he wouldn't force them to go to bed earlier and that they were responsible enough in the situation to choose their sleeping hours. Some did mistook his words in a way and thought that they were given a free pass to stay awake the whole night, but izuku got what he meant in a way, this was another test.

They were treated as sidekicks in this exam and while Snipe was treating them with some kid gloves, Snipe still made a point to tell them that it was their choice to make and that they would deal with the consequences of it. They could stay awake all night if they wanted, but if they were too exhausted to work, then it was on them. Izuku decided to at least socialize a little in the agency cafeteria for a while before going to bed. Kinoko when to bed earlier because she was a little tired and izuku was now dealing with Setsuna Tokage.

“Midoriya! What's up?” Setsuna said. Itsuka, Yui, and herself were able to socialize with Izuku after that day and aside from izuku's issues that make him to lock up when talking on occasion, she could say that she is on friendly terms with him now. Setsuna was surprised that despite the insurmountable distance that Izuku in a way projected with his cold and detached facade, Izuku was actually someone who was almost too easy to interact with and befriend if you made at least the effort to try. Maybe that is why Kinoko was able to be at ease with him despite her initial disposition, someone that was so shy and demure with class 1-B at the beginning of the class year, being able to be that unbothered by someone that should intimidate someone as shy as Kinoko was almost difficult to believe unless the fact that Izuku being way different of what he showed was the explanation that Setsuna came up with.

She was aware of his past as a bullied kid thanks to those videos that were shown in the Sports Festival and maybe that cold front now combined with his not-so-silent stance was a defense mechanism to avoid being hurt again by people. That kindness that Izuku showed even to those kids that either looked away to let him suffer at the hands of those bullies was still there, but now you had to make the effort to get Izuku to be kind to you.

"I'm passing the time..., I'm going through what I did today..." Izuku said. He wanted to at least review in his head what he did today in the exercises that he tackled alongside Kinoko and the group.

"Aah..., that is a way to pass the time. So, what did your group ended doing during the day?" Setsuna said.

"The first thing was to help the police to stop a man who was... about to jump from the rooftop of a building, which took us 30 minutes. The second thing was to help in the rescue efforts of the civilians...that were injured and were inside a building that had being attacked by villains, and then Cemmentos appeared and...we had to fight him to prevent him from messing up with the rescue efforts..." Izuku said. Setsuna was surprised enough that she interrupted Izuku to comment on the fact that he and his team had to tangle with Cemmentos.

"Whoa..., so you had to fight against Cementos? My group had to deal with Present Mic while we were dealing with a group of villains causing some ruckus in one street and let me tell you, those sonic screams of him are a pain in the ass." Setsuna said. Izuku nodded with understanding at Setsuna's plight, he didn't wanted to be on the wrong end of one of those ear rupturing quirk- powered screams of his.

"I feel your pain..., even if the teachers are going easy on us, they are still more capable...than us in every way." Izuku said.

"Yeah..., that is a given" Setsuna said. Both chatted a little before they decided to call it a day. The mere action of patrolling the new fake city during the whole day even with some breaks on the way was exhausting and they needed to recover enough strength for tomorow, maybe what awaited them was the same, but that didn't mean that they should get overconfident.

The second day came and the students were back on the streets, patrolling the fake city while waiting on Snipe's instructions and directions. The groups were told to roam around a particular area of the city and then at some point in the day, Snipe called them through the communications and directed them to an incident in the area if they were a little far or just pointed them in one direction if they were close enough.

This routine was what izuku and the others were dealing with during the exam and some took that routine with far more gusto than others. For example, Itsuka Kendo. She remembered how her internship was just her playing dress up for a commercial and she felt that the whole week was wasted in a way. Sure, she learned a little about public relations and marketing, but she wanted to at least show that she was more than a pretty face as the heroine that she did the internship said to her, at least this exam was cathartic in a way despite the fact that she ends the day exhausted after all those exercises. At least in this exam, she gets to show what she can do on the field, even if is just a simulation and at least could prove that she was more than a pretty face.

Itsuka Kendo may not cared that much about her looks to the level that an average girl did, after all, a hero had to look presentable to instill a sense of confidence to the public, so taking care of her skin and body was something that she wasn't against it but it still irked to her that her internship with a popular heroine was only because of her looks and not because what she could do.

She talked about her issues with some of her friends and a lot of them were not giving her the answer that she wanted in a way, not even Izuku when they started to interact after that day gave her that answer that she looked for, but he did something else. He just told her that her feelings about how her internship ended up were valid and that she had the right to feel upset about it, but that she should not let those feelings dictate her life and that she would do better if she let that issue drop and moved on, that she should let something so inconsequential to get her that bent out of shape up, that she was better than this.

What Izuku told her was something that more or less she had pieced up from what others told her, but maybe it was because Izuku in his state made the effort to talk and tell her that made those words sink in.

Itsuka decided to work out her issues with how things went with her internship week in this exam and thanks to the fact that this was an internship week in all but name, then Itsuka could cleanse her palate of that bitter aftertaste with this exam and bury this issue for good.

And there was no better way for her to show it than to do something daring, she and her team were going to spearhead the capture of one of the teachers that were playing the part of a villain, but despite that show of bravado, Itsuka had a plan, said plan came to her mind when yesterday, izuku adn her talked about some detail that were not that covered in Snipe explanation and they decided that if they were nearby, they could call for support if needed.

After all, heroes on patrol or sidekicks could ask for backup from other heroes nearby their area and maybe that was not in the manual for this exam, but since they wanted to test us to see how we do as sidekicks, then being able to call for help if the situation required was something that they could do.

So when Cementoss was surprised over the fact that her team was actually trying to fight him over trying to repel his assault, the hero decided to increase the intensity a little and tried harder, he used his quirk to try to trap the students with his cement construct and was impeded and proud in a way when he saw that they were keeping up in a way. The hero was deliberately giving them a small window of opportunity to move out of the way, considering that he could reduce them with ease if he tried, but to see that they paid attention and were keeping up with him, at least the hero was content with the results, but it was time to put an end.

"I will at least commend your performance, if this was the original exam that Nezu had in mind, at least I would let you 6 win after this performance, but at last, this is something different." The hero said. the students that were captured by the teachers during the exam were going to be penalized because they showed that they tried to bite more than they could chew, and even if their combat performance was praise worthy, this exam was designed with the intent to gauge how they performance on the field as sidekicks, and to lose to a villain in the field is one of the worst ways that a hero could fail to do his duty.

"You are so right about this being something different, Cementoss..." Itsuka said, she was exhausted and was catching her breath at the moment, but she refused to falter even in this situation. The time was almost right now.

"Well..., at least your heroic spirit is unmatched..." The hero said, he decided to trap them by boxing them inside four walls made of cement.

"This is not about heroic spirit, is about doing something to save the day, even if your contributions weren't enough..." Setsuna Tokage said, smirking even in this situation, the hero thought now that maybe they were having a second wind. He kept his guard up and slowed down the creation of those walls just in case so he could react in time.

"At least..., we stalled you long enough for the reinforcements to arrive." Itsuka said. Cementoss was surprised to hear those words and that was a critical mistake. Cementoss heard how the sound of a device firing something in the distance and then he looked upwards. he saw a steel cable that went from one building to another and he was below it. Then the sound of something sliding through that cable could be heard and he saw how Izuku Midoriya and Kinoko Komori were sliding through the cable in order to reach the other students.

"Shemage!" Izuku said and then Kinoko used her quirk to release spores that covered the whole area that were below her and then Cementoss saw how multiple mushrooms emerged from the ground after those spores made contact with the ground around him.

Then the sound of something sliding through that cable could be heard and he saw how Izuku Midoriya and Kinoko Komori were sliding together in that cable in order to reach the other students. everyone saw how Kinoko was closely hugging Izuku while they slid down adn they also saw how Kinoko was being tied up to izuku with a couple of belts that came from the harness that Izuku was wearing now and that allowed both to safely slide down that cable.

The hero saw how some of those mushrooms were starting to sprout red-like fingers and then a putrid smell that came out of nowhere incapacitated him. Izuku and Kinoko stopped sliding when they were on top of the walls that trapped Itsuka and her team and they landed there.

"Sorry for being a little late, the help has arrived..." Izuku said, he helped Kinoko to take out those safety belts that were what attached her to him and when Kinoko was able to touch the ground with her feet, the others saw how she was blushing like crazy at the moment. Setsuna was about to comment about that exagerated blushing that Kinoko had in her face now, but she kept it to herself, Kinoko had made a great contribution to defeating the teacher, so she was going to not tease her classmate about that fact...yet.

Nezu and Snipe saw what had happened from the camera feed and were stunned into silence for a while. They didn't saw that coming.

The second day of the exam ended adn then Nezu decided to comment on what Izuku and Itsuka's team had done. He discused with Snipe and after a quick deliberation Nezu decided to intervene in the exam only this time to say his piece.

"Well..., there is a lot for me to say about what the team Midoriya and team Kendo did to Cementoss... and in the end, both of the teams will get an extra bonus on their final score of this exam..., as much as what you did was not in the rule book for this exam, I find that punishing students that show that they are capable of acting like heroes and to be able to coordinate with the other teams to incapacitate a villain is something that I think that should be rewarded, not punished..., but this is just a one time only for this exam. We never expected for any of you to capture a teacher so no rule can be followed to gauge the situation." Nezu said and then the communication with Ground Sigma was turned off.

"I can agree with the principal..., with all said and done, that level of coordination and planning is something that is a powerful asset on the job, to fight small-time villains it may be unnecessary, but to take dangerous villains on your own without being sure that you can take them is just plain stupid. What team Midoriya and Team Kendo did together was admirable and a show of wisdom..., but that doesn't mean that you should put all your efforts into teamwork. A competent hero is strong enough to fight on their own, while also capable of fighting alongside others for the common good, do not let your personal might to decay just because you work with others all the time, there may be times that you are on your own and if you aren't capable of fighting solo, then things could get messy." Snipe said and then he let the kids on their own.

The second day was officially over and from what Nezu said, the results of this new type of exam were good enough. Snipe decided to just watch over from the sidelines while being impressed over the fact that some of the first years were able to pull a fast one on the teachers. Snipe and Nezu were aware all the time of their plan and decided to see how things would go. They were also aware that a quick update to that rulebook was in order. They had underestimated the first years a little by the looks of it and they had paid the price for it.

Snipe knew that poor Cementoss was going to be teased a lot about it, Snipe was going to keep the teasing at a minimum considering the fact that the man was underperforming for the sake of the kids, but maybe that meant that they could increase the intensity a little on this exam, but in the end, that was Nezu's decision and if Nezu wanted for that to happen, then it will be done.

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

The third day came and everyone was surprised by the fact that they only had to deal with one exercise and no teachers to try to fight them. Some of them thought that there was some catch while others decided to chill for a while after the exercise.

Izuku and some other students decided to take the opportunity to patrol the streets to keep that feeling of paranoia silent and they also chatted while making their rounds in the street.

"By the way Midoriya..., is that difficult to use one of those things?" Setsuna said. Izuku and Setsuna were making some small talk about the exam and then she remembered how izuku swooped into the rescue with his support tools while looking like a badass of those old movies of the pre-quirk era. She looked at his grappling gun and let her curiosity to get the best of her.

"...it may look easy, but I had to practice for a month to get the timing right..., one slip up and the consequences could be painful." Izuku admitted. The memories of the vestiges inside OFA did at least let Izuku get it under control faster and that was thanks to the second and third vestiges' memories in particular. Their memories about fighting and navigating through war-torn cities and how they had to be resourceful with what they had or they would die at AFO's hand made those two soldiers to learn how to use those kinds of tools for their survival.

"Seriously...?, you make it look like is too easy..." Setsuna said. Izuku looked at her with an apologetic look before deciding to say something.

"You could find inside U.A. a way to get that kind of training in the next year..., those kinds of mobility...tools are something...that unless your quirk needs...from one of those, then you are going to wait... for the second...years of heroics, by that time you would be more physically...capable so the training of it would be more manageable..., at least is what U.A. Hero Course Q.A. said..." Izuku said, that info surprised Setsuna.

"U.A. Hero Course Q.A.? Is that a thing!?" Setsuna said.

"Yeah..., I mean, the one that is on U.A. main web page..., but to be fair, that question is one that you...have to make to get an answer" Izuku said

"Huh..., I guess that makes sense..." Setsuna said.

"Hey, you two. We are going back to the agency, we have being on the streets for too long and is getting late." Itsuka said, both Izuku's team and her team decided to tag in during their patrol and after walking through the whole city while not leaving any stone unturned, they decided that it was time to return to the agency.

"Okay..., we should get a move on...we can talk later..." Izuku said to Setsuna and both joined the group and walked to the agency.

“Is this okay?" Midnight asked. She was surprised when Nezu told them that today they would let the kids to get one free day.

"Don't worry. This is just to see how they dealt with this situation, after all, not all days are filled with dangerous villains or multiple incidents." Nezu said. He was surprised when he heard Snipe's idea and he found his reasoning valid enough to give him the approval.

"But what can be evaluated in this day?" Ectoplasm said.

"Nothing aside from intent..., some of them decided to rest without a care in the world after the only scenario that they had for the day, others decided to rest but talked with those that decided to patrol the streets to tell them that they would be on standby just in case that they were needed, and some decided to patrol the streets again just in case." Nezu said. He saw how the meeting room was silent and then he decided to talk some more.

"We must take notes on their behavior in the situation to either correct course or help them to improve, that lack of diligence on our part was what had allowed class 1-A to lose that many students. we ignored those students' behavior until it was too late to do something about it. The whole mess with Bakugo and how his attitude was ignored because his quirk was powerful did backfire on us in the worst way possible." Nezu said. The fact that it took some dumb kids pulling a cruel ploy to humiliate Izuku and a hacker who somehow had a vendetta against Bakugo to be able to see the writing on the wall was a sobering experience.

U.A. was supposed to be the best hero school in the world, and they had been failing for a lot of years thanks to Nezu getting too confident and lax after the years on his position. He was so confident in Eraserhead decisions that he failed to see the negative effects of his logical rouses and how they caused more damage than good. Nezu had refused to question how Bakugo wasn't expelled on the spot for that stunt that he pulled when he tried to attack Midoriya while Eraserhead had expelled other students for looking at him in a way that he didn't like it before he had entered in the room.

Nezu was forced to confront a massive media scandal in witch he was unable to defend himself with his intelligence because his actions were not as intelligent to the public as he wanted to admit. those allowances had costed a lot of his reputation and that shamed Nezu enough to get him to stop messing around. he needed to work to get U.A.'s reputation back on track and he realized that he wasn't as well equipped as he thought. Taking counsel from others was something that Nezu was too reluctant to do, but he decided to let All Might and Gran Torino counsel him in matters that were unfortunately something that he was unable to deal with to solve the problem. So with that in mind, he allowed Snipe's idea about a light day for the exam to test the students' reactions in that situation to go forward and now he was taking notes.

The fourth day was a return to the routine, but the students realized that things were a little more harder than before. the fake villain robots were a little more sturdier and more powerful and they were forced to make an extra effort to win. Even the teachers were making their fight with them a little more intense.

That forced the students to adapt and to actively communicate with the other teams to not fall behind. That lesson had to be learned the hard way for two teams that were confident in their chances.

Team Monoma and Team Sero lead their members in a losing situation and that caused them to be captured. Being captured incurred a penalty on their final score because not only they were barred from participating in the other events prepared for them on that day, but also made the result of any exercise done before to be null and void. There was a small mercy on that part of the exam and as long as your team is not captured more than twice in the exam, then at least you will not be automatically suspended. But that was not the case yet and at least their final scores were already penalized a little. After the second capture, the penalty increased by a lot.

The students socialized a little after they were told to return to the agency and it was clear that some problems had arisen in those teams. The poor leadership of Monoma and Sero that lead to their teams being captured had caused a shouting match to occur near the cafeteria. Izuku was not indifferent to that discussion and decided to step up when one of the students of 1-B was about to throw hands with one of their classmates who tried to deescalate the situation.

"Huhh!?" Neito Monoma gasped, he saw how Izuku got near him in less that a second and caught his hand.

"Enough...!" Izuku said. he was staring down Monoma while the others now where standing around, the situation had reached the point that Snipe was about to intervene, but he then saw that Izuku stepped up.

“...” Snipe stood there, watching how things were going and ready to step in if needed.

"Be thankful that this is...an exam and not a real situation..., your failure here at least leaves you with room to grow.., in a real situation..." izuku said, he then decided to close his eyes before finishing his sentence.

"In a real situation you could have died...so don't waste time...being bitter about it...do better." Izuku said and then he let Monoma go. The whole fight ended and then everyone decided to go to bed early today. Izuku's words still resounded in their mind.

The fifth day came and while Izuku and the others were just going through the motions, the teachers that were not participating we're reviewing that small confrontation in the agency of the previous day.

“Don't waste time...being bitter about it...do better." Izuku's words echoed in the office and Nezu alongside others were assessing the situation.

"That could have gone messy..., at least Midoriya steeped in before things could get out of hand" Cementoss said. He was still a little flustered about his defeat the other day, but he took it with as much dignity as he could. All Might's words of encouragement and appreciation for his role in helping the students to develop at least softened the blow to his ego.

"Indeed, but why Snipe in the end decided to let Midoriya handle it...?" All Might asked.

"All Might..., Snipe is more accustomed to dealing with third-year students who are more autonomous. He is letting them do things on their own and only stepping up in case it's truly needed. He cares about the students, but he prefers to let them learn on their own, offering to help them if he is asked or he thinks that he truly needs to step in. He believes that the path of self-discovery is what a hero should do to improve and persevere, but there is no shame in searching for counsel or guidance in things that you don't know. After all, if you know that you aren't good at something and searching for ways to correct it to the point that you need the help of others, then you have discovered something about yourself." Nezu said.

"I see..." All Might replied adn then watched how the students were now going through their test. Izuku had given a lot of use to his new piece of gear that he called the climbing mod in those days.

The climbing harness that Izuku added to his suit gave Izuku new ways to use his grappling gun and the other strange device that he used to rappel down a building or zipline to move from one building to another. Said harness was positioned in the upper part of his hero suit and went from his neck to his thighs gave izuku enough space to add carabiners to hold some things like rope or belts that he could use to allow him to carry someone with him while he was rappelling or ziplining. Izuku showed the knowledge of how to use his gear when he used his gear to safely carry an injured civilian to the ground or when he pulled a combination attack with Kinoko in order to defeat Cementoss.

Not even Eraserehad, who was there watching the recording was able to say that Izuku didn't knew what he was doing. He had asked the first day of the exam why Izuku was using those support items if he didn't need them to fight by the looks of it, and All Might decided to tell him as politely as possible two things, the first one was that he had no say on what a student should use as a support item considering the fact that he overly relied on his scarf to do his job, and two, that Izuku usage of those support items was to help him in situations that he needed to do something that had nothing to do with fighting, the climbing mod was more suited for rescue efforts and Izuku had told him that he hated how the heroes that stood there looking pretty while Bakugo was dying were so content in doing nothing and that he refused to be in that same position as them.

Eraserhead silently looked at the recordings and saw that Izuku was pulling double duty as a rescue hero and a normal hero in order to not be helpless in any situation. He couldn't deny that he found that kind of determination to be admirable, but he knew that Izuku at this point didn't cared at all about his opinion adn everything that he could do or say to him was going to be unsolicited.

The more he saw how Izuku quickly grew after not being under his watch stung the man, but he had to deal with it, how many students that had a similar potential as Izuku had were expelled by him because he didn't want to do his job? How many of those kids could had grown to be capable and resourceful heroes if they had found someone that was capable of setting them straight on the path? He may have wanted to avoid those kids to share Oboro's fate, but in the end, he caused far more harm than good.

"..." Izuku was at the agency now, his team was resting and Izuku was busy with his notebook, this one was the one that contained rough sketches of his gear and Izuku had decided to just write notes of them in case he had one surge of inspiration adn wanted to write it down.

"What are you doing, Midoriya?" Kinoko asked. She was done with her dinner and saw that izuku was still at the table in the cafeteria.

"Komori..., I'm just messing around...with a couple of ideas in my head." Izuku said.

"I see..., is this about you climbing mod?" she asked.

"Yeah..., I'm trying to streamline the design to make it more...effective while taking out some of the less...needed parts of it..., but I am drawing blanks at the moment." Izuku admitted.

"I can't really help you with that..., but I can say that you are getting a lot of benefits from using it." Kinoko said.

"It may be silly..., but when I'm designing them..., I am thinking of them as less of a specific tool...and more as a standard piece of gear that a hero should use...if that makes sense..." Izuku said.

"Hmm..., that is interesting." Kinoko said.

"I mean..., when thinking about making a tool easy to use... for a lot of people, I think less about the style or their looks... and more about the functionality...and safety of it. I don't think of myself as the only one...who could use it, and then I think...on the potential future users" izuku said.

"Whoa..., that sounds almost like some students of the support course would say..." Kinoko said.

"Heheh..., maybe I am getting a little... too egocentric, but it helps me to design those things...when I think not only on myself as its user" Izuku said.

"Huh..., you may be right..., but is not a crime to dream big..., even if those people were so mean to you in the past for your dreams and desire of being a hero..., they were wrong." Kinoko said. Izuku then looked at her a little surprised before smiling a little.

"Thank you..., Komori." Izuku said.

"No problem..., anything for a friend." Kinoko said. both decided to chat for a while before they decided to return to their rooms to rest. there were still three days left on this exam and there was still a lot to do before the exam was finished.

This hands-off exam that they were doing was a test not only of how much they had learned but also about how they were capable of acting in a real situation. On the third day, Izuku learned that not all days as a hero were going to be filled with actions and villain attacks, and getting too worked up about them was something that one should avoid. And yesterday, Izuku learned that team dynamics can be fragile sometimes, good leadership can make a difference, and authority sometimes is needed to resolve conflictive situations between teammates or other heroes. Team Momona and Team Sero suffered the consequences of their leaders' poor leadership and Izuku had to step in to restore order before things could get messy. That was one thing that a hero who leads an agency needs to do to keep the most rowdy people under control or to break of a fight between two heroes that were too busy having a pissing contest to get the job done.

What kind of lessons would they learn in those two last days? Izuku wondered that to himself as he finally went to bed.

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

The sixth day of the exam came, and it was clear that the focus of the exam had changed in a way. There was more fighting involved with the fake villains that came to interrupt the exercises and all teams had to react accordingly to the situation. Now they had to pull double duty and fight the villains while trying to resolve the exercise that they were meant to do at that time. For some teams, that meant that they had to either divide their efforts to do both at the same time or focus on one task to do it fast enough to be free to do the other one at a more relaxed pace.

This day had a lot of variables that Nezu calculated in his own mind after the sixth day was done and he was able to get a more complete recording of their fights. Hindsight was 20/20 and to make a fair judgment, it was for the best to get the full picture of their exploits for the day. Every situation that each team dealt with was different and since those teams had their own dynamics and circ*mstances, attempting to gauge them with one single standard could be a bad call.

Not all teams had people like Izuku who was able to do really well in both roles, to the point that he could handle one task solo while leaving others to focus on the other. He still had ways to go before he could be a real hero, but his performance during the exam was the one that was the most praiseworthy.

He showed all that meteoric progress that he had made in his quest to master OFA since he switched to a more focused training plan and had a competent teacher to mentor him, and it was izuku's own initiative that made him take a conscious choice to learn how to perform as a rescue hero even if his true potential was more related to combat.

Izuku's team had the luxury of having him there so he could perform any role that was needed while letting the others be less pressured for their remaining responsibility. He was an outlier among the first-year students of the hero course so it would be fair to judge the other teams under the same lens that were used to judge his team's performance.

The other teams had to manage their limited manpower in order to deal with their exercises and the lack of a competent team member such as Izuku to expand their choices. so they were scored based on how they decided to deal with those situations based on what they did based on their manpower and the logic that they took to choose a particular decision to resolve them.

Some teams choose to fight the villains first before fully committing to the exercise, while others rushed the exercise to then be free to deal with the villains with no distractions. Izuku's team and Itsuka's team focused on teamwork to tackle both sides of each exercise by splitting up into those that took the villains on to give the others the time to do those exercises with no interruptions.

Those teams who chose to deal only with the villains first did it because they were more suited for combat and they preferred to deal with the exercise with no interruptions and those teams that chose to do the exercise while using their quirks to stall the villains so they get the potential civilians of the way did the best they could in their situation and their way was as valid as the one that Izuku's team and Itsuka's team ended taking. So their score was not going to be reduced for it.

The potential ramifications of their choices and how they could affect the situation weren't going to be a factor in this exam. Those parameters are only something that they would have to deal with if they continued in the hero course to the second year. They were starting to get into the heroic world, so they should be held to a more flexible set of standards in this exam.

"..." Everyone was silent in the agency after they returned and saw that Snipe had something to tell them. The next and last day of the exam would be the same as their third day.

The idea of having the last day to unwind and take it easy after this one-week-long exam sounded good. A while after Snipe informed them of that last part of the exam, everyone was now hanging out with other students while trying to let the stress of the day disappear while they had a good time.

One of the side effects of the exam was that at least the students of both classes were able to interact with each other in more friendly terms. The revelations of the Sports Festival and the subsequent fallout did damage both classes' dynamics in a way, but now that the situation has calmed down, then the students were less adverse to interact with each other.

Some interclass friendships were starting to develop and while the members of Team Monoma and Team Sero were still a little high-strung after what happened the other day, the other were more willing to establish some connections during those times in which they had nothing to do after their work hours were over.

Izuku was unfortunately the only one who still had trouble with creating new connections, but he was able to at least interact with those students from 1-B with little to no problem that weren't Monoma.

Izuku's point of telling Nezu and All Might that he saw Monoma as a watered-down version of Bakugo after that disastrous first meeting was the thing that shot down Nezu's original proposal of getting Izuku into 1-B and also made Izuku dislike people that showed traits like those that Bakugo had in the ego department. Monoma overblowing the whole class rivalry to the point of trying to put class 1-A down that time solidified in Izuku's mind that Monona was another Bakugo who was just not powerful enough to live up to his true egocentric self. No amount of words from those girls of 1-B that were becoming his friends were enough to make Izuku reconsider his stance, but considering that Bakugo's constant bullying of Izuku had been one of the most clear sources of misery to Izuku's existance as a child and to see how much damage his mind endured, then asking Izuku to try to befriend someone that was almost a stand-in of Bakugo in their class. and even the girls were unable to deny the resemblance in the way Monoma acted at the beginning of the school year. his plan to underperform to catch the students of 1-A by surprise was now being looked at with other eyes and they believed now that Monona wanted to have them sabotage themselves in the Sports Festival to give himself an edge in the competition.

Even if Monoma was now showing remorse for his actions that day, nobody in class 1-B really trusted him that much anymore, the comment that one girl with ear jacks in her earlobes made about hearing All Might said that Izuku refused the idea of transferring to 1-B because of Monoma's presence when Monoma taunted the remaining students of 1-A in the cafeteria in the next day of class after the sports festival did not help the situation. The subsequent talk with Vlad King and for him to partially confirm those claims was what shattered their class for a while.

It took a couple of months for the class to more or less get back to normal in a way and even still, their trust in Monoma took a nosedive, some gave him the benefit of the doubt while others didn't. The previous day's outburst when his team and the one of students of 1-A had and how that went was more or less something that they knew would happen sooner or later. A solution had to be found but nobody knew what could be.

Izuku and Kinoko were just patrolling the city despite the fact that they were told that there were no exercises or hidden test waiting, but they did it anyway to just enjoy the sight of Ground Sigma and how the city that they had been protecting in a way was with no threat or villain in the way.

"We had been going up and down on those streets for six days straight..., is almost nice to stop to see what we had been protecting and why we did it..." Kinoko said, they were both in their hero costumes while walking down those streets at a more leisurely pace. They engaged in some small talk before Kinoko decided to wax nostalgic about the previous days of the exam.

"Yeah..., a lot of people wants to be heroes for the fame and glory..., but there is a sense of fulfillment in seeing that your efforts...aren't in vain..., to see that your actions had made a positive difference is also a reward in of itself..." Izuku said. He was looking at his friend while talking to her and felt drawn to her eyes at those moments.

"I get it, to see that your efforts had been part of what had kept the peace is something that a hero should take pride in..." Kinoko said, both were staring at each other for a while and Kinoko saw that izuku was almost like he was in that day in which izuku gazed upon her for the first time.

"...some people just want to find a purpose in life..., to find that something that gives them that sense of fulfillment, that sense that their lives have a meaning, that they exist for a reason..., maybe for us, this is one of those things..., but sadly..., there are people that find that meaning in violence and villainy." Izuku said.

"You may be right..." Kinoko said. She looked at how izuku's eyes were getting a little dull now.

"I...I never knew why I wanted to be a hero so badly..., I told myself for so long that I wanted to save people with a smile like All Might..., but there was almost nobody for me in those times..." Izuku said, thinking about his childhood and how it went

"Midoriya..." Kinoko said while looking at her friend with some concern.

"I have been thinking this for so long..., and I know why I was so willing to endure all that I had to without breaking..., I wanted so badly to believe that all that pain...all that suffering were for a greater purpose... that those trials and tribulations were going to be rewarded in the end..., but that was a lie." Izuku said. the teachers and Nezu were monitoring the city and were about to pull one last surprise in the exam stopped in their tracks when they heard how Izuku was talking about his pain. Izuku took a deep breath before continuing.

"I...I wanted to be acknowledged by people..., for people to recognize my existence...even if it was through scorn and mockery. I have been told multiple times in the past that I am...a waste of space and that I deserved to...die for it..., but that cruelty in a way gave me a purpose to exist..., their insults..., their violence..., their hatred became my purpose to continue living..., to suffer them to be acknowledged by my peers..., but not anymore..." Izuku admitted. His words made Kinoko start to cry in a way. The teachers that were monitoring the whole thing and All Might to look adn hear what transpired with a sense of sadness.

"I...didn't deserve any of it..., I did nothing wrong by existing... I deserve to live..., even if there are those who loathe my whole existance..., they are nothing..." Izuku said getting a little shaky after talking about his most deep feelings.

"Midoriya..." Kinoko said while sobbing a little.

"Sorry for making you cry..., but thanks to you and others..., I know what I truly want to do now..." Izuku said while blushing a little while being embarrassed about making his friend to cry in a way. but he looked at Kinoko and she could see that the light in his eyes was getting brighter again.

"I will fight..., I will live on..., I will persevere for those who had their faith in me while ignoring those...that derided my life for so long..." izuku said, recovering his composure while letting it all out.

"I will spite them all by living the best life I can... while also doing what I want..." Izuku said while smirking a little.

"Midoriya..." Kinoko said and then she hugged him, which caught Izuku by surprise but he did let it happen. After a while, Kinoko let him go and got flustered a little for what she did.

"I'm sorry..., I don't know what came over me..." Kinoko said while realicing wha she did. Izuku laughed a little and answered to her.

"It's okay. I don't mind..., I got too emotional while opening up to you now and that got you a little affected..." Izuku said. He was blushing a little after the realization of what happened settled in.

"Still..." Kinoko said while also blushing like crazy

"Don't worry..., I... appreciate the moral...support. It felt...nice." Izuku said, and then both stayed there immobile for a while. both did watched how the other was also blushing and they looked at the eyes.

"We should return... to the agency... together..." Izuku said and extended his hand. Kinoko looked at Izuku for a couple of seconds before nodding at him and gently holding his hand as a way to reply to his words.

"Yes..., let's go back... together" Kinoko said and they both held hands while they walked back to the agency. the only ones who knew that what happened were the teachers who looked that interaction through the cameras that were installed in the city. What the future holds was unknown to both of them..., but they decided to tackle it together. In one way...or another.

"...!" In those moments, the vestiges inside OFA saw how a massive amount of that box that contained them inside Izuku was starting to break and shatter at an impressive speed. they were now able to feel Izuku's emotions and thoughts with more clarity even though there were still some remnants of that box floating around their place. It was clear that Izuku at this point was almost capable of fully connecting with OFA's power, there were still some concerns but they would have to take a page of how izuku did things and start to communicate with Izuku in a less forceful manner.

There was some fanfare when the next day of class after the exam came. The students of both classes returned to the routine while Izuku was back to flying solo while tagging with the students of 1-B during heroic class.

The results of the final exam were given the second day after the exam and everyone passed despite a couple of incidents that happened during the week.

They were given a short summary of their exploits during the exam and how the teachers had scored them alongside notes containing comments from some teachers about particular points that they felt necessary to comment on, some of them came in the form of basic comments that suggested some small tweaks on the way that they did things while a few were more critical of particular things that they did that could had made the situation worse during an exercise in which a supposed harmless mistake could had escalated to something more serious, but those comments weren't tearing them down, they were made with the intent of helping them to see them and to correct course.

Izuku didn't had too many comments on his performance aside from the fact that he was a little too distant with those of class 1-A even if they ended up working together during the exam in some exercises. Izuku was still feeling a little overwhelmed at the idea of interacting with them, but maybe..., maybe now he was capable of at least holding a polite conversation with them if the situation called for it without going silent out of shame of felling weak around them.

There were still three weeks before summer and while the rumors of a summer camp were thrown around them by the hero students of the other years, Izuku and the others weren't paying attention to them.

They were busy with their remaining classes, social interactions, and in izuku's case, a meeting with certain heroic oldest hits of the past that now were able to interact with izuku now that the biggest wall that they had in the way was almost destroyed to the point that the remains of it were more symbolic than anything.

izuku was now having a dream that put him inside the box that kept those vestiges locked up. That box was still there, but it was almost fully destroyed by the looks of it.

He looked at his hands in those moments and saw that he was almost a silhouette while the vestiges were having a fully realized human form. He couldn't talk, but he could at least hear and see them.

He saw those seven people who were those previous users of OFA and aside from those two who were geared up for some urban warfare and the man who had a more civilian look than the rest, the other were heroes more or less...

"Hello there..., Izuku Midoriya..." Izuku saw that man with the white hair and green eyes that was looking at him.

"Yoichi..." Izuku tried to say, but not only was he unable to say a single word, but he was confused because he knew that man's name. he knew a little about the others thanks to those dreams, but he had nothing on him.

"Do not be alarmed. Your confusion about me is understandable..., you had gone through a lot. So that made me decide to not make an active contact with you like the others. My memories would only bring you pain, a pain that you aren't at the moment unable to digest." the man said. Izuku could protest about it, but he sensed that Youichi was being honest with him.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, and before you try to ask, we can sense your thoughts and feelings, so even if you can't talk we can at least communicate with you in a way" the man said. Izuku decided to give it a go and then the man smiled at him.

"Good..., even if there is a lot to discuss with you, we are going to be brief at the moment, now that we can establish a connection with you, then we aren't that worried about any sort of problem, at least for now." the man said at him.

"So for the time being, let's talk about OFA and how you managed to do what you did in that restrained state of yours." Youichi said.

What came next was a talk between the vestiges inside OFA and izuku about how their quirks were and how Izuku had been using them in a non-intended way. they weren't so sure about how their quirks worked anymore thanks to what Izuku did with the creation of those techniques of his and now that he had an awareness of their quirks and how to actually call them at his leisure, Izuku felt confused. There was a lot to digest from the situation and izuku only knew one thing, he needed to come up with an excuse now to explain how izuku could use those quirks without admitting that he had now multiple quirks. he then had a weird idea that could work and after some deliberation, izuku decided to the next day after class to talk to All Might and Nezu to help him with it, it was a good thing that Izuku had an excuse to go to the quirk registry to change his quirk's name and what he could do now thanks to that status as late bloomer giving him a plausible cover about him going there to update his quirk. after all, he was starting to figure out his quirk, so going there to update the information that he had given before now that he was getting a more accurate knowledge about it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Chapter 12

Chapter Text

"..." Izuku looked at the paperwork that had already been filled up in order to update the quirk registry on his file. Izuku felt something strange when he had to forge that document now that he had to find a way to pass off the quirks that were inside OFA as something that he could do with his quirk just in case.

All those hero notebooks that he had writen about thousands of heroes and their quirks that Izuku had looked on the past on tv now were what allowed Izuku to bullsh*t his way into creating a convincing coverstory for OFA now. He decided to just get creative with what Fa Jin could do and he decided to rename his quirk as Kinetic Energy Manipulation. He just said that his body could generate on its own burst of kinetic energy that hurt him in the past until he figured out how to use it properly, he also said that he had a limited psychic power related to that kinetic energy that he could store in his body so he could explain some of the things that he could do at the moment.

The vestiges inside OFA didn't see that much of an issue with that cover story and after letting All Might, Gran Torino, and Nezu see what he had come up with, those forged documents were pushed forward by the principal Nezu himself so some formalities could be skipped to keep OFA secret more secure.

So after getting that renaming of his quirk done. Izuku decided to test under Gran Torino's watch in Ground Omega how he used those other quirks solo in their original forms, and then he understood why the vestiges were confused. What they had told him that should have happened to him was not what he was dealing with. Gear Shift should be a dangerous forbidden kind of technique for Izuku to use if what the second told him and Danger Sense was supposed to give him a painful headache, but Izuku didn't suffer those nasty blowbacks for some reason, but maybe that was because izuku's awakening of those quirks was in a moment of his life that he was really at his lowest and afraid of damaging himself even further, and that maybe made Izuku to somehow figure out how to tone down those dangerous quirks for some reason at the cost of some power.

Izuku may not be able to fully tap into OFA's power to be an All Might 2.0, but maybe that was for the best. Trying to imitate him was not working out for him, and if he had access to multiple built-in quirks inside OFA that he could use and combine to compensate for his inability to fully tap into OFA's power, then he was fine with that trade-off.

The more that Izuku reviewed the notes that he had about those 6 quirks inside OFA, the more he realized that he didn't need to go and hurry in mastering OFA. The whole giving the laws of inertia the middle finger by changing the speed at which things accelerate through space with Gear Shift, the ability to build up and store kinetic energy by moving around with increased returns to release a massive amount of power with Fa Jin, the capacity to detect any potential threats in the surrounding area from human opponents with Danger Sense, the ability to create black tendrils of energy with Blackwhip that could complement his usage of his grappling hook gun, to be capable generate a thick cloud of purple smoke from his body to create a smoke cloud with the aptly named Smokecloud, to almost being capable of flying with Float. If Izuku had a lot of trouble with getting OFA power under control, then he could work smarter with that massive expansion to his arsenal of power and literal tools that he got from OFA and those combinations of those quirks that he used that somehow defied in a way how those original quirks were supposed to be used to go by, but he needed to train with those things anyway and with the whole thing of going to I-Island with All Might. and the first years of the hero course for the I-expo, then his training was going to be put on hold for a while.

After a long journey in a plane that took them all to the I-Island, the students of the first year of the hero course were taken to a private hotel for heroes so they could rest. They were tired from the long flight and since it was almost midnight by the time they reached the I-Island, then nobody was in the mood to do any kind of sightseeing.

Izuku landed on the bed in his room and his mind went straight to the inner world of OFA when he fell asleep in an instant.

The sight of the vestiges and that realm was now on his mind adn then he saw how the sixth and second were just discussing how izuku managed to come up with a new technique by using their quirks in an unexpected combination.

"Geyser..., to use Smokescreen to release the power of OFA accumulated in your body out like the exhaust tube of a car in the form of a lingering cloud of hot air, and then to add my quirk to make that cloud to slow down those that cross it for a couple of seconds..., you are creative." the second vestige said to him. Izuku couldn't help to be reminded of Bakugo's presence when looking at the man, but as long as he didn't act like Bakugo, then he could deal with it.

"You know..., I would had definitely liked to know if I could had done that during my time with OFA..., maybe that could have helped me to perform better against AFO..." the sixth said.

"Hindsight is 20/20 and to be fair, none of us at that point knew that we could access the quirks of our predecessors..., that information could at least alowed us to fare better... or could had made things worse..." the fourth said.

"He has a point. OFA damaged our bodies and reduced our life span because we had a quirk. What can assure us that if we could use those previous quirks like Izuku could do, we would be killing ourselves even faster? The strain that using more than two quirks could do to us in those moments could have made things worse in the long run" the seventh vestige said. She was Nana Shimura and was All Might's mentor.

"Yeah, she is right. That possibility may sound neat, but for all we knew, we could have succumbed to OFA's backlash even faster should we had been capable of doing what izuku is doing now." The fifth vestige said, that man did felt a little bummed out because izuku discovered his power the last despite the fact that in his own words, he appeared to be the most attuned to him for some reason. Izuku knew that his decision to use grappling hook guns and other contractions had in a way made the man to feel almost left out for some reason.

"What Izuku is doing is pretty much what AFO does with all the quirks that he steals, and considering that AFO and OFA are connected in a way thanks to the fact that my brother and I were twins, the possibility of any of us mixing up the quirks stored in OFA to use them in tandem was never out of the table, maybe it's just because the OFA is that powerful now or maybe is because Izuku has something special that allows him to do this now, but what matters is that he is able to use all the quirks inside of OFA now and that we should try to help him to master this particular ability of his." Youichi said.

The vestiges were talking and Izuku thought about the whole having something special..., he remembered his mom telling him something a long time ago about the possibility of him actually having a rare quirk disorder that caused his quirklessness status when she told the doctor that declared him quirkless that he had a test made in the hospital when he was born and that he had a quirk factor. The subsequent test made there somehow showed him as a quirkless person after the doctor said that. That doctor said that maybe Izuku suffered from a rare quirk condition that made his developing quirk factor break inside his body and with it, destroying his supposed quirk in the process. There was a small memory of him in that day when an old man that got near him and his mom to start a conversation with them before they talked to that doctor that made him think that he was in danger, but he was a child in those moments and he was unable to explain what made him that apprehensive about that old man that touched his head in that moment. He didn't knew why he was thinking about that moment now, but maybe he should talk with his mom about it, that nagging feeling in his mind about that being important somehow was something that he would have to look into it in order to put that issue to rest.

"Whoa...!" the group of students of U.A. was now in the area of I-Island where the I-expo would be celebrated, everyone was looking at the surroundings and were amazed. there was a lot of things in that area and a lot of people around things like cafes, musical shows that were making a lot of them itching to participate in the festivities, but they had to wait for the moment, as they were being guided by All Might first sidekick and now world-famous inventor, David Shield, to participate in an exercise that a lot of them would enjoy.

Villain Attack. That was a special game on the island that was going to test their capabilities as heroes while defeating villains and the main focus of their visit to this place today.

All of them were already walking around the area with their hero costumes on them and aside from the fact that Izuku had to leave some of his support items behind to be repaired for a while because a mishap that happened during the landing broke them a little, Izuku was more or less prepared to rumble. At least the fifth would be happy now, he has an excuse to use Blackwhip for more than combat purposes. Izuku was not going to discard his gear and support items just because he could use those quirks to get better results than before. In Izuku's mind, it never hurts to be prepared in case he couldn't use OFA for some reason and he was surprised with the second and third positive response to his stance, but then he remembered that those two were born in a time when quirks weren't that hyped up and they had fought against AFO while using almost anything that they could get their hands to get an advantage in their desperate struggle, those two were more appreciated of that kind of mindset.

So Izuku was now showing the extent of his quirk that had been renamed as Kinetic Energy Manipulation to perform impressive feats of strength for a first-year student, defeating villain robots with ease and speed that put him almost at the top of the group in overall performance.

The vestiges and the others then saw Izuku's suddenly expanded moveset that was defeating the robots with ease while getting some extra rescue points by gently carrying a civilian robot out of the way by using Blackwhip to zipline his way into the safe area for the civilian robots to go. combat in an urban area was something that izuku had shown to be quite adept at, and his decision to increase his mobility made him a fearsome opponent not only for what he could do with his quirk but because it was almost impossible to run away from him.

"Get over here!" David saw how Izuku created a black tendril of energy that acted as a rope that grabbed a fleeing robot and brought him to where he was. Izuku had a clear issue with his stamina at the moment but Izuku showed that he was more creative with his usage of OFA and those quirks inside of it to compensate for the lack of progress in increasing the power that he could muster with OFA before not being able to endure it. Izuku was at the moment capped at 20% of OFA power, maybe it was a mental block or something, but Izuku was unable to push past that limit at the moment, not even after talking with the vestiges izuku was able to break through his limitations. Izuku took it in stride and showed that he had what it takes to persevere, but David Shield was still a little concerned about it and in the end, he continued with his plan. He was not as disparaging of All Might's succesor as Sir Nighteye was, in fact, David thought that Izuku was a likable person and worthy of OFA despite his situation, but the world still needed All Might and he felt that forcing someone who had been put through so much to carry the weight of the world of heroics on his back like All Might did was unfair.

David kept his inner turmoil to himself while watching how All Might was looking at Izuku's performance in that exercise with a mix of pride and sadness. That only steeled his resolve to go through with his plan to recover the quirk amplification device to help All Might return to form. He knew that All Might's run as a hero had to end someday and he could feel that Izuku was a more that adequate successor to carry on in All Might's role, but that fear still lingered in his heart and that was his weakness.

"That was fun...!" Setsuna said. She was now in one cafeteria in the area eating something with her friends. They were allowed to wander around for a while before being told to gather to go to a museum. they were given a pass that gave them at least one free consumption a day in one establishment in the area and they decided to stop in a cozy cafeteria that was near the area where they participated in the Villain Attack.

"I agree, it was nice to stretch our legs after that plane trip..." Itsuka said.

"Mmm..." Yui nodded at her friend's words. The travel was unexpected and they had little time to prepare, but they were having fun nonetheless.

"Yeah..., the seats may be comfy, but being sitted for so long can be a little stress-inducing..." Setsuna said, the three girls were just discussing what happened recently, and when they saw how Kinoko and izuku were hanging around while window shopping some clothing stores, Setsuna smirked a little and decided to gossip a little about what they saw that day in the final exam.

"Well..., those two lovebirds are having fun by the looks of it." Setsuna said. Itsuka and Yui looked at where Setsuna was pointing and they saw Izuku and Kinoko.

"Come on, Tokage. is a little too early to say that those two are a couple." Itsuka said, she remembered how that Sunday in the exam, Yui, Setsuna, and her decided to patrol the streets a little and they saw Izuku opening his heart to Kinoko, they were also there to listen how that sh*tty childhood of his made more than just a number in his mind.

"They look good together..." Yui said. That caught those two by surprise. They knew that she could talk, but she always keep it to herself all the time and barely spoke with others, so to hear that coming from her did surprise them.

"You may be right, Kodai..., the whole shy and gentle girl getting the brooding boy to open up to friendship and love is something that I can get behind." Setsuna said.

"Oh my..., I never thought that you could be so romantic..., that is a surprise" Itsuka said.

"What can I say..., we all have our weak spots, and romance novels are one of those for me." Setsuna said.

"Duly noted..." Yui said.

The conversation between them continued while Izuku and Kinoko were minding their own business, both blissfully unaware of the fact that their moment on the last day of the exam was something that was seen not only by the teachers of U.A. , but also by the people of 1-B that he could call friends.

They were also unaware of the fact that some students of class 1-A that were his friends in the past were now following him from a safe distance and saw how Izuku was having some genuine fun despite not having any clue about what to do in the situation.

Nobody knew at all in U.A. save a few individuals how Izuku Midoriya was outside U.A., those of class 1-A did interact with him, but their bond was not that strong and close enough for them to try to know him better. the training for the sports festival and Kirishima's attempt to whitewash Bakugo's first nasty impression on them didn't allow them to bond with him properly.

Even with that short amount of time, Izuku did made a strong impression, Uraraka remembers how izuku tried to save her life during the entrance exam and became a friend with him during that short time. Asui remembered how they teamed up together to survive in the USJ adn how he almost sacrificed himself to save her life. Iida did remember how despite the bad impression that he made on izuku the first time they met, they became friends anyway, but then that mess happened and Izuku was away from then. None of them was there in his time of need and unfortunately, not even if they were able to be there, they had what they needed to help him.

The distance that was erected between them was a reminder for them of their failure, they did knew thanks to Iida confessing to Uraraka and Asui that there was a small part of Izuku that still cared for them, but said part is buried under the trauma that he had endured until he couldn't take it anymore.

The first months after that were more painful, and now that they saw that Izuku was almost back to normal, they didn't knew how to feel about it. They were happy in a way, but they were saddened over the fact that they didn't helped him in his time of need. Maybe one day they would be on speaking terms, but now they felt that Izuku had no real place in his heart for them. Only time would tell if their fears are unfounded or they become a reality, but one of them is feeling the worst in this moment after seeing Izuku having fun with Kinoko.

Ochako Uraraka. She has been struggling with her own feelings on the subject and she realized that she had a crush on him. Unfortunately, that realization came too late to do anything about it, by the time she realized it, Izuku was already far away from her and now it appeared that someone else was getting into the place that she wanted to be at the moment, the similarities that Kinoko Komori had with her made the situation worse in a way for her, to see from a distance how someone that looked similar to her was having a fun time with Izuku did made her feel sad, it was almost like fate was taunting her, it was almost like she had made a wrong choice in the past that had no significance at that moment and now she was paying for it.

There was little to be done here except moving on to avoid more heartache and to fall for someone else, there were a lot of fish in the sea, but it appeared that Izuku was too rare and valuable enough to make the loss of her chance more painful. In the past, maybe it was not that obvious, but now it was clear to almost anyone in the first year that Izuku was meant to do great things. She could only wish for Izuku to be happy now.

Chapter 13

Chapter Text

Izuku was now having fun alongside Kinoko. their friendship did evolved into something else that made both of them take it slow at the moment, neither of them had any real experience and they felt that they didn't needed to rush things at the moment.

There were some stalls with fair games that Izuku and Kinoko participated in to pass the time. One of them had a price that Kinoko wanted. There were two plushies of a red and a green mushroom respectively that she wanted and Izuku decided to play that game of throwing a small ball that if you knocked the price of its stand, then it was yours.

Those balls were definitely too small to knock the big prices in one shot and if you went ham on them, then you could break them, Izuku decided to use Gear Shift to calibrate that perfect shot that knocked those two plushies from their stand and gave then to her.

"Thank you..." Izuku said as the man on the fair game gave him those two plushies and then he gave them to Kinoko.

The vestiges inside OFA were watching with such ease Izuku managed to use Gear Shift with such precision despite the fact that he had started to use it right for only two weeks. They expected for him to struggle a little, but he just made those quick calculations in his mind and got it right the first time, the fact that Gear Shift in his restrained state should have turned those plushies into broken toys with the power released but Izuku safely toned it down gave some credibility to the theory of the first that he had about Izuku having something special that was making OFA to work like this now. They had the idea that the box that trapped them inside Izuku when he got traumatized had something to do with it, but they didn't knew what could that meant.

"You are pretty good..., I almost expected for no one to even win in one of those games..." Kinoko said.

"... I don't think that said game was rigged..., I just hit a sweet spot and got those prices with some luck..." Izuku said. He didn't wanted to admit that he cheated a little and used Gear Shift, but it was not like he hurted anyone with what he did.

"Maybe..., but it's still a little lopsided game in the favor of the stall." Kinoko said.

"I mean..., that is how they make their business, it wouldn't be profitable if the people won with ease." Izuku said.

"You have a point..." Kinoko said, she was still grabbing the bags that carried the two mushroom plushies that were official nintendo products that had been retired from circulation a long time ago and were collector items because they were rare. They were the 1-up mushroom and the super mushroom.

"Cheer up..., I won those things for you, and that is what matters." Izuku said, Kinoko smiled a little and they moved to continue their march through the area before they were told to return to the hotel.

The next day, the hero students were taken to a pavilion that contained a private exposition of support items and technologies that were almost ready to be released to the public and they were amazed. The tour was a fun time in which they were guided in the pavilion by David Shield's daughter, Melissa Shield. Izuku did talk to her yesterday and still remembers the conversation that they had.

Melissa looked at him like he was the only one who could in a way understand her and her plight, after all, the sports festival of U.A. was a televised event in the whole world and his tragic past was now something that Izuku knew that it was known in the whole world.

Izuku did keep to himself the fact that he went from worse than she had gone in her life considering that even if their situation were the same, they did have different resources. Melissa had a powerful and influential dad who shielded her from the worst parts of the quirkless discrimination and in a way could help her to get her own footing on her desired career path. Izuku, on the other hand, had a normal mother who was unable to even do anything aside from trying to console Izuku while he went through that hellish nightmare that almost broke him, Izuku had no protection against the cruel bite of what it truly was quirkless discrimination and there was almost no future for Izuku thanks to the fact that even is lack of quirk would be an impediment in any career that he could chose even if he ended giving up his dreams of being a hero..., their experiences made them different, but he understood Melissa desire to establish a bond with someone that has something in common with you, so he just focused on that. He tried to be nice because that was the least that he could do for her and he had a nice time talking with her while she watched how she was trying to fix up his gear in her lab.

Her voice snapped Izuku from his mussing when they reached the end of the tour.

"And those are one of the few things that would be available to the future to hero hopefuls such as yourselves and heroes all around the world." Melissa said. the group made some small questions before they parted ways and then it was only Izuku and Kinoko.

"So..., do you want to see if there are stalls with prices that you like... Kinoko? I had a lot of fun winning in those games and if there is something that you want..." Izuku asked.

"i..., i do actualy..." Kinoko said.

"Okay..., then lead the way." Izuku said. Kinoko looked at Izuku before both walked out of the pavilion and went back to the stall where they visited the previous day.

"Good..., they are still there..." Kinoko said, looking relieved to see that the three other plushies that looked like the poison mushroom, the mini mushroom, and the mega mushroom were still there.

"So..., you want those?" Izuku asked. Kinoko simply nodded.

"Then say no more." Izuku said and then he played that game again and won those three plushies for Kinoko. They then returned to the hotel to rest before the third day of this particular week started.

Izuku was weirded out for some reason. David Shield told him and Melissa that they should go to the I-Island Academy to get Izuku's fixed gear back before going to the Central Tower for the party. Melissa also felt that something was a little off but she trusted her dad. Kinoko ended up tagging along with them and they went with Melissa to the Academy to enter in her lab to pick up the gear that was fixed up in the end by David, but when they entered the lab, the security systems on the whole Academy when online for some reason and locked them up inside Melissa's lab.

"What is going on?" Izuku said. trying to keep calm, but the situation did get him on edge.

"I don't...know! My pass to enter the whole school at my leisure is not working now!" Melissa said. She was getting a little worked up in this situation.

"Calm down..., getting nervous now won't help." Izuku said and then put his hand on her shoulder. Melissa appreciated the gesture.

"Hey..., why are robots roaming in the hallways" Kinoko asked. She looked at the window on the door and saw that there were a lot of robots that looked like security bots in the hallways of the Academia.

"They are..., I-Island Security Bots..., but why are they here!? this area is secure enough unless..." Melissa said and then she tried to log in to her computer in the lab and saw that the communications were offline.

"is something wrong?" Izuku asked.

"We are on high alert!" Melissa said.

"That doesn't sound good..." Kinoko said.

"it doesn't sound right, Kinoko... the internet and any form of communication are being cut off so we are in the dark at the moment. the only place that had access to the internet or communications now is Central Tower's control room on the top floor." Melissa said.

"The central tower..., isn't there where the party is being held?" Izuku said.

"Yeah..., something had to happen there to get the whole island on lockdown." Melissa said, she tried to keep calm, but the mere idea that something could happen to her dad put her on edge.

"Okay then..., so it's settled, we are breaking out here and see what is going on..." Izuku said. Kinoko looked optimistic, but Melissa was still a little wary.

"How can we do that? Those security robots would capture us in no time if we get out of the room..." Melissa said. she expected for Izuku to rebuke her, but he just looked at her and just smiled at her.

"I know that I may sound difficult to believe in our actual situation..., but it's a hero's job to stand tall and proud against adversity, and besides..., in this room there is a genius that is trapped in her lab with materials and tools to think on a solution..." Izuku said. that did surprised Melissa.

"Wait..., are you talking about...?" Melissa asked.

"Yes..., you. you are a genius who works in the development of support items and knows how those robots work on the inside, we are trapped in your lab and have here your tools, some materials, and your wits to find a way out of here. You just need to believe in yourself." Izuku said. That almost got Melissa teary-eyed.

"Do you... really... think that i ...?" Melissa said. Izuku nodded at her words without hesitation.

"Of course. we are in this together now. maybe this whole could be just a mistake that a guy in that room made, but you will regret it if you refuse to take a stand now..., so please, Melissa, help us to save the day." Izuku said. His words did helped melissa to make up her mind and she wiped the tears on her face before her face got more serious.

"Give me a moment..., I figure out something." Melissa said and then she decided to look in her lab for certain devices that she fabricated and had them stored to take them apart in order to build something that could help them get out of this mess.

The students and All Might were trapped in the hall room with all those restraining devices also targeting them. he felt that something was off when David told him that Melissa and Izuku were in the I-Island academia in order to pick up Izuku's gear. He felt powerless and it was clear that his time was running out. the death of one of those kids from 1-A when he was shot through the heart by a villain in a weird suit that fired a laser beam from the tip of his fingers still hounded him. Yuga Aoyama's face full of despair was something that he would never forget.

The heroes were getting frustrated at the moment and then, something happened, those capture devices were suddenly undone and they activated again to target the mercenaries with guns.

"What the...!?"

"We are free!" some of the heroes that were in the room said. without those capture devices restraining them, the situation returned back to normal.

"Someone! Disarm those villains and confiscate their guns!" A hero shouted and then the heroes in the room decided to enter into action.

All Might did rushed out of the room and tried to get up as fast as posible, but then he saw that an elevator opened and he was surprised to see who was there.

"Midoriya!?" All Might said. He saw his apprentice in that red formal suit that he borrowed and he saw that the gliding mod and the climbing mod were fitted to it.

"Sorry for being late to the party..., the traffic was horrible..." Izuku said as a joke. All Might saw that on Izuku's side, there was an unconscious man who was restrained with rope.

"This man took control of the security systems on the I-Island and was hidden in the control room on the last floor..., I broke inside that room and took him out..." Izuku said. All Might was about to ask how he was able to reach the top of the central tower, but then he remembered that he had his climbing gear on him and he could had used OFA to speed up the process.

"The security systems are back in control of the I-Island people. come, get on this elevator to reach the rooftop now." Izuku said and then All Might nodded at his apprentice's words and entered the elevator.

"We were trapped in Melissa's lab and I was able to break through the place while carrying some devices that she gave to me." Izuku said in order to explain how he was there. He showed a strange walkman that had one small light that was going on and off.

"With this. I was able to sneak by undetected by those robots that were invading the streets, this made me invisible to them. She said something about this thing being capable of creating interference with their facial recognition to the point that they go blind if they looked at me..., and considering that she had to take parts of some devices in her lab in a hurry to build it, then I can say that she made a fine job considering the circ*mstances..." Izuku said.

"I see..., how is she..." All Might asked.

"I had to leave her and Kinoko behind in her lab, I ran as fast as I could to the point of using OFA to make a 30-minute trip into 2 and a half..., then I had to climb the whole tower in a minute to reach the control room and thanks to that same walkman..., I was able to enter the room and incapacitate that villain." Izuku said.

"You hadn't wasted time..." All Might said, being clearly impressed about how Izuku got to work so fast to resolve the situation.

"I promise Melissa that I will get her as fast as I could so I could see what was happening here..., and it appears that some villains entered the party uninvited..." Izuku said.

"Yeah..., a villain called Wolfram and his goons caught us by surprise..., I saw how they took David and a friend of his away from us at gunpoint..." All Might said. The elevator was on floor 55 now.

"I see..., the security bots are now back to normal and Melissa is controlling them now from her lab. so maybe those villains are now captured..., but something tells me that is not going to be that easy..." Izuku said.

"Can you sense something...?" All Might asked.

"Yes...I sense...8 hostile presences up there..., their hostility is palpable even from here..." Izuku said. they were now on floor 69.

"I see..., I know that telling you to stay out of the way would be stupid now..., I will need all the help that I can get, but please..., don't be reckless..., Aoyama had being killed tonight in front of us and I would feel devastated if you die..." All Might said. Izuku nodded at the man and reassured him with a smile.

"Don't worry. I will be careful...but now..." Izuku said, they were on floor 79, then it changed to 80.

"Now we have a job to do." Izuku said and then both All Might and him walked out of the elevator, ready to face what awaited them.

Chapter 14

Chapter Text

The League of Villains has become stale to the point that AFO considered that he would have to put that failed experiment that was Nine his into the fold to bolster their numbers. AFO didn't trust Nine at all, years of dealing with overly ambitious minions made him know that Nine was waiting for a chance to stab him in the back. AFO still thoughts that he had the upper hand and while he decided to prepare to get one student of U.A. kidnaped to keep the loyalty of one of the few new recruits that joined Shigaraki after the disaster that was the attempt to gain publicity with Stain's actions in Hosu, AFO directed Nine and his group to help Wolfram and his gang to assault I-Island to steal a device created by one of All Might sidekicks that could potentially help him in his quest to get rid of All Might, but AFO was uncaring about Nine's potential treachery at the moment that he was unaware that both Wolfram and Nine decided to join forces to overthrow him in the future. Wolfram was an overly greedy and ambitious man and the promise of getting access to AFO resources to use at his leisure was enough for him to join Nine in his efforts to defeat AFO at a future date, but it was clear that an alliance between the two backstabbers was shaky at best and it was a matter of time that one bad situation would fracture their alliance.

Like for example, How their plan to keep that device for themselves was already going down the drain right now when the security robots appeared and started to attack them. In a moment of distraction that Nine and his crew had, Wolfram took the device and put it in his head, with that enhanced power and the rush that it gave to him he became too co*cky and broke their alliance. Nine was not surprised at that development and he knew that the greedy mercenary would try to pull a fast one on him after they succeeded in their plan to kill AFO.

Nine's crew and Wolfram's henchmen were overwhelmed by that swarm of robots and the sleeping agent that those security robots had stored in the form of a syringe to sedate dangerous targets did affect those taht were caught lacking. Only Nine and Wolfram were able to overpower those robots with ease, but the sudden loss of manpower was palpable. This endless wave of robots was taking a toll on them and the situation became even worse when they witnessed how All Might and Izuku Midoriya had reached their location.

Nine looked at Izuku for a couple of seconds and then he activated one of his quirks to see if that boy was the one that AFO suspected he had OFA in him now. He was able to see that indeed, Izuku Midoriya possessed OFA, but there was something a little off. That power that Izuku had inside of him was almost glitchy in a way, it was like it was some kind of interference inside of Izuku that made Nine's reading that strange.

Izuku and All Might entered the fray and Izuku took Nine head-on while All Might fought against Wolfram. Izuku's mobility made him fare better against Nine array of quirks and All Might power kept Wolfram at bay.

The vestige warned Izuku that Nine was giving them AFO vibes and that allowed Izuku to avoid getting surprised at the fact that Nine used more than one quirk. The vestiges, Yoichi in particular started to reveal more about their past after a couple of weeks of them being able to talk with Izuku and how the fight with AFO was in order to prepare Izuku in case of a possible resurgence of that man. The sight of nine and how that quirk of his partially resonated with OFA proved that theory of theirs right and they needed to give support to Izuku in the best way he could.

The villain called Nine was frustrated at the moment. All had been going so well up to this point, with the whole killing the mole of AFO in U.A. to get rid of one of that man's agents while they were on the island fulfilling their objective, and now they were on the rooftop of the tower, with his crew incapacitated and Wolfram stabbing him in the back. He expected an easy fight from that kid who looked so pathetic in those videos, a weakling who deserved to be put down for his weakness, but that kid was keeping him at bay with his fast movements adn his long-range fighting style. Izuku took the warnings of the vestiges seriously and decided to use Blackwhip and the flicking of his fingers to release gusts of wind to take that villain down. Izuku was fighting a fight of attrition against that villain and Izuku could sense that this was the correct choice for what he could see and feel. Nine was forced into a defensive position and since Izuku was using Blackwhip to grab the broken robots and use them to slam his Airwall down repeatedly, then the villain was unable to even push foward, when his defenses broke, Izuku activated Fa jin to do a quick rush to that villain that didn't gave nine the time to even react and the last thing that Nine saw was how Izuku delivered a flurry of quick punches to his body as the fatigue that he had accumulated with the usage of his quirks became too much for his body to handle.

At the same time, All Might and Wolfram were evenly matched. it was that device that David Shield created that put that average villain into that level of power and All Might's years of experience on the field of battle did allowed him to keep that villain at bay.

Wolfram was confident in his victory when he felt something stinging him on the back of his head and then all that power that the quirk amplification device gave to him disappeared.

"What th...!?" Wolfram shouted before he felt a sudden wave of exhaustion take over his body before he fell unconscious on the ground. All Might saw how the man's back was stabbed by multiple syringes and then he saw how Izuku was carrying two syringes in his hands.

"Sorry for the late assist..., the vestiges told me to be wary of that guy with the high-tech suit..." Izuku said.

"I see..." All Might said. he then watched how Izuku looked at his phone and awner to it.

"Melissa. We already incapacitated the villains..., what? It was you the one that...?" All Might saw how Izuku's face showed a shocked expression for a couple of seconds before he continued talking.

"I see..., thank you then. You did save the day with that one..." Izuku said. he then hung up the phone and all might asked what he had talked about with Melissa.

"Remember that I told you that I broke into the control room and took that villain out? Get this. when I restored the signal, Melissa took over the security robots in the tower and sent them to stall those villains before we reached them..., that is why we only had to deal with two villains instead of 8..., those bots soften them up for us." Izuku said.

"That's good..., she did help us a lot..." All Might said.

"Yeah..., she was the hero of the day. I may have rushed here to get that villain out of the room, but it was Melissa's support and items that helped me to get that fast to the tower the streets were filled with those bots and it was that device of hers that made me invisible to them." Izuku said. He did consider that to be a hero sometimes was more than just fighting the villain and capturing them, sometimes it was having the skills to deal with situations that were more complicated than just punching someone in the face. Melissa's technical knowledge and experience with computers made her capable of turning the tide in this situation when their strength was not making the cut.

That was one path to being a hero that unfortunately was not really recognized by society. A path that he could have taken if his situation after meeting All Might hadn't changed. The day was saved not only because All Might or him were able to defeat those villains, but it was also Melissa's efforts that gave them both the chance to win. In the end. All Might took the credit for what happened and Izuku's involvement was ignored even if All Might believed that he deserved the credit for his contributions, but Izuku told him that he preferred to not have the news hounding him if the fact that he helped to stop a villain that attacked an international event became public, Izuku already had to deal with some of those that wanted to have him to talk about how he helped to detain stain adn that much publicity was too much for him at the moment.

All Might complied with Izuku's wishes and aside from revealing that he was the one who with the help of one scientist who was not captured were able to deactivate the security systems of the I-Island, Izuku's name was barely mentioned.

The party mood was ruined and while everyone returned to their resting accommodations. All Might privately questioned David about what had happened. he was saddened to see that his friend got so desperate to see him at his full glory again that he was willing to orchestrate a fake villain attack that turned out to be a real one and that he deliberately sent Izuku and Melissa to the I-Island academy so they could intervene. Commenting on Izuku's way of using OFA made David think that Izuku could have ruined the villain's attack if he had been able to sense their presence long before they attacked. All Might made the point of saying that it was Melissa's help that allowed Izuku to save the day. David was ashamed of what he did and tried to apologize for what he did. All Might told him that as much as he wanted to forgive him, his ploy had ended up claiming the life of one kid from U.A.

David could only apologize for it and All Might told him that he would have to work hard to correct this mistake and that he would keep quiet this once, but that he should had more faith in the future heroes over trying to get him to continue to be a hero when it was clear that his time was up.

The students of U.A. had trouble sleeping that night after returning to their rooms in the hotel when they saw how that villain killed Aoyama in front of them and that look of pure horror would haunt them for a while.

The I-expo of this year was marred by that incident that killed one kid and by the time that news reached the ears of AFO. the man became enraged beyond belief. Nine had killed his mole in the hero course and now he was unable to get info from inside U.A., Aoyama may had proven useless at finding All Might's successor, but it paid to still have a pair of ears there, and now that said ears were permanently out of the table, then he would need to find other ways to gather information, but for now. he already had some agents ready to kidnap Shoto Todoroki and to take his quirk away in order to keep the loyalty of certain someone. He expected that Dabi would keep the end of his deal and support Shigaraki after his plan to take himself out of the game temporarily was in motion, kidnaping a hero student with his now reduced members of the league was a dangerous gamble, but to take away a student of the general course that had become a pariah in this society for his actions was way easier, and AFO liked easy things. Not like that green-haired brat's quirk that he tried to steal a long time ago and ended up breaking itself when that quirk fought back against AFO to the point that it severed itself to prevent being stolen, AFO was able to get the fire and psychic part of that quirk, the one that stayed behind was the one that allowed the perfect control and fine-tuning of that incredible pyrokinesis power from output to how it affected the user. That important part that was so minuscule in that quirk, was left behind inside the boy in a dead-like state and that left him with an uncontrollable yet powerfull pyrokinesis, maybe AFO should have left that quirk that was unstable alone, but he wanted that power for himself and he was unable to resist the allure of it. He was sometimes thinking about that kid for some reason, but it was not like that kid that now was a quirkless nobody would get in his way now... right?

The return to Japan was a little somber for everybody. The death of Aoyama was still lingering in their heads and seeing death so close to them tempered their enthusiasm a lot. The previous cheer and excitement to go to the I-Island expo was now forgotten and an eerie silence was instilled in the plane that took them back to Japan.

Izuku didn't know what to think about Aoyama, but he was sad to see him go out like that. He barely interacted with Aoyama that much while they were in the same class, but still, that villain that had OFA feeling that AFO was there made him think that Aoyama's death was not something that was done in the spur of the moment. He asked Itsuka and Setsuna what they saw and they told him that the man was almost deliberate in his action to kill Aoyama. the villain could had gone for All Might or another hero to cause a greater impact, but he instead chose to kill Aoyama for some reason. what was the thing that Aoyama had that made the villain decide to kill him and only him when he could had killed the other heroes or the other students while they were restrained in that same room? Izuku was not the only one who asked that question, but it was clear that at the moment, neither him nor the others would get an answer for that particular question.

Those villains were at the moment kept in custody in the I-Island and they would be interrogated after more adequate accommodations were made to contain them, even if it was all might and Izuku the ones that defeated them, they were captured in I-Island and that can of worms was something that Izuku was not ready yet to deal with. International jurisdiction between heroes of different countries and who gets the custody of villains that were captured in foreign soil was something that was for a third-year hero student to learn how it worked and for the governments of Japan and the I-island to resolve.

Izuku was just still a first year who had been forced by fate to handle a situation that was a little too big for him to handle, but since he had OFA, then Izuku guessed that this kinds of situations were going to be unavoidable.

"Izuku!" Inko Midoriya said. She saw how her son had entered the home with his luggage that he had taken for his trip to the I-Island and his face was shown a neutral expression.

"Mother" Izuku replied, he smiled and hugged his mom.

"I was so concerned when I saw the news about what happened at that party..., I heard that one of your ex-classmates was killed there..." Inko said.

"Yes Mom, Yuga Aoyama was killed by a villain there..., and there is something about that event that makes me think that there was something going on behind the scenes that we aren't aware yet..." Izuku said.

"What are you saying, sweetie?" Inko asked, a little concerned to see how Izuku got a little too focused on that event.

"Sorry Mom..., but if that villain wanted to make a statement about how he could had killed them all if they complained or something, they should had chosen a hero taht was restrained, or even the restrained All Might..., no a kid that barely was a hero in the making..., maybe I am getting worked up over nothing..." Izuku said.

"It's okay sweetie. that sitaiton had to be shocking enough and you are coping in the best way you can..." inko said, trying to help iIuku to relax.

"Maybe you are right..., I shouldn't chase shadows without any reason..., but there is something about that tragedy that is bugging me..." Izuku said.

"Izuku..."

"Sorry Mom..., I should try to talk about happy things..., like how I hung out with Kinoko the days before the party and were having fun in some fair games that were there..., I won a lot of plushies in a stall about knocking prizes out of their location with small balls..., it was fun." Izuku admitted.

"Huuh..., do tell me, sweetie, I want to hear about the fun that you had there" Inko said, she knew about how Izuku became friends with a girl from the other hero class that wasn't 1-A and how both became friends to the point that said friendship helped Izuku to slowly recover his voice. she was concerned a little about the fact that he told her that they decided to try to get closer, but she could only trust Izuku and pray for his happiness. to see Izuku talking about having fun like a normal person after years of being denied said happiness made her happy. To hear that Izuku was starting to have friends and people that actually cared for him made Inko happy and relieved. for far too long Izuku had suffered the cruel bite of society's contempt for those people without quirks and now that he was normal in the eyes of society. She was worried that Izuku would had lost himself in anger or frustration, but he persevered, he did his best and now it appeared that his luck was finally turning for the best. She was partially sad for those individuals whose fortunes had taken a nose dive after the events of the sports festival except for one person. Katsuki Bakugo and how he made his son's life a living hell made her indifferent to his plight and the one that Mitsuki and Masaru were dealing with. She didn't wish that kid to die or for his family to suffer, but she decided that she was not going to spare any thought for him or his parents after all that happened.

Bakugo could had made the right choice a long time ago and for as much as he had been indoctrinated in school to act like a rabid dog with no consequences, a kid who wanted to be a hero should at least know the difference between right and wrong..., but then Inko remembered how this society worshiped those with strong and flashy quirks as heroes in the making and all made sense. People like Bakugo were the kind of hero that society wanted and in a way the kind of hero that they deserved, a hooligan who wanted to hurt others without any impediment, but it appeared that for now, that villain was going to be out of the streets for good.

Inko just hoped for things to calm down for a while, but considering the kind of world in which she lived, asking for that to happen was not going to work.

Chapter 15

Chapter Text

"..." The time for boarding the bus that would take them to a summer camp for them to train their quirks in secret, and even though the morale of the group was low after Aoyama's death, a lot of them saw the whole thing as a welcoming distraction form that tragedy that still weighed on their minds.

For Izuku, the whole issue was still on his mind and even if All Might promised to inform him about any information that they could find, he felt that All Might was trying to keep something hidden from him.

Was he mad at that idea? A little, but he understood that maybe the situation was that bad to the point that telling him would do more harm than good. he was still a kid and in the first year of the hero course and even if his fighting skills were reaching the level of a third-year hero student, there were details and nuances that he wasn't being taught yet and his lack of knowledge would be a detriment in that situation. Izuku didn't need to rush things and he should focus on learning things that were meant for him to know for a first-year student of the hero course like he was.

So he expected to have some fun in the summer camp even if it was going to be a long week of physical training in the mountains and a massive area that belonged to the puss*cats. Izuku just hoped that he could had some time to climb a mountain there in order to practice his climbing skills there. He relied on his gear and OFA to save the day on the I-Island when he climbed the central tower and even if he knew that saving the day was far more important than his pride in his skills, Izuku did wanted to improve them in case he needs them, but he was going to do what they told him, after all, he wasn't there to do what he wanted, he was there to train as the others would.

So when they stopped at a bus stop that was in the vicinity of the area that belonged to the puss*cats in order to meet with them before they changed busses for security reasons. Everyone then saw that the four members of the puss*cats were there at that bus stop alongside one kid who was sulking all the time.

Izuku was able to pick up that kid's barely contained hostile intent and when he saw that one student of 1-B tried to talk to the kid, Izuku was able to warn him to take a step back before something could happen. That student reacted on time and dodged a punch to the nuts that the kid threw while looking at them with anger.

"Tch!" that boy spit to the ground after seeing that his attempt to get that boy to leave him alone was frustrated.

"That was a close call..., thanks. Midoriya..." Yosetsu Awase said.

"Don't need to..., that kid's hostile intent..., is similar to the one that a villain has..." Izuku said while being concerned about the fact that a small kid was so filled with malice and hatred at them that his quirk picked him up as a threat.

That comment did concerned the puss*cats and Mandalay was about to respond to that, but she remembered that she had read those files that U.A. gave to them that contained those kids' quirks and capabilities and the note in izuku's quirk said that he could detect people with an excessive hostile intent and that all those times, he found out villains or people with bad intentions with it, so she had to bit her tongue while looking at her nephew with concern in her eyes.

In the end, the plan that the puss*cats had to force the kids to track the forest on foot was discarded because everyone moved to the other bus that was supposed to take them to the camp quickly and were warily looking at Kota just in case. The puss*cats's feeling that the mood had been killed now thanks to Kota's actions was also part of that decision to just ditch that plan.

The Beast's Forest, this place was the location in which they would train for the duration of the summer camp. The puss*cats explained then that they would be pushing their quirks to the limit in order to improve them while also training their bodies to keep up.

Izuku did asked if they had areas to practice mountain climbing and the heroes were confused for a couple of seconds before they remembered that izuku in particular showed certain proficiency with things like grappling hook guns and climbing equipment if from what they read and saw in those videos was true.

They told him yes, and after that, they walked the students through the areas that they would use before they let them unpack their belongings in their rooms so they could have a first training session today. A lot of the puss*cats were surprised when some students asked if they could teach them the basis of climbing and they decided that after a couple of days, they teach them that.

The strong impression that Izuku caused on them when he used those climbing abilities not only to his favor during the exam but also to turn the tide in the I-Island incident convinced some of them to try it at least.

Sure, Izuku used specialized gear to climb, but from what Kinoko said to some of those students of class 1-B izuku considered climbing a fun exercise and it helped him to train his balance and stamina management while he trained inside Ground Omega. They knew that not all of them would benefit from that, but it never hurt to try it, and who knows, maybe some of them found it as a hobby, but that was for another day. On that first day, all of the students started their training session by just repeating an exercise that they did in the quirk assertion test.

It was the particular test of strength that was throwing a small ball as far as they could while using their quirks. Izuku despite not being in class 1-A anymore, had to see if his new development in the way to use OFA made him throw that ball farther than before.

Izuku took a deep breath and then he activated OFA alongside gear shift and just threw the ball up to 10 kilometers from their position, surpassing with ease his previous records with a little bit of strength adn cunning.

The vestiges were now aware of what was Izuku's issue with OFA and that discovery shed light on the way that OFA had been used by Izuku since that day.

Izuku was an exceptional case in the world of quirks that in a way put OFA in a situation that none of the previous users had even fathomed in the past that could happen at all. If OFA was like the water in a vessel and if moved to another vessel that was already full, then the water would spill and that spilling would mean death by the strain that OFA caused to a body with two quirks, then Izuku was a nearly empty vessel with a barely existing drop of water inside of it that took OFA's power to fill itself without spilling it. That was good and all, but the moment that Izuku had that mental breakdown at the sports festival. That minuscule drop of water that was the barely inert quirk factor of Izuku's original quirk had an awakening from the significant mental trauma thanks to the fact that it had been revived by OFA's power in a way. That broken quirk factor pulled a reversal on OFA and now it was taking that power that they had to repair itself while also adapting OFA at the same time to work with it, it went from near minuscule drop water to a powdered drink mix that mixed itself with OFA, making Izuku a "quirkless" individual that received OFA like All Might did in the past but at the same time, he had a quirk that had been assimilated in a way by OFA like the previous users. That particular loophole caused Izuku to bypass OFA's deathly side effects on those individuals with a quirk while also giving OFA an incredible tool to add to their powers. Said tool was the perfect control and fine-tuning of OFA's power that went from output, how it affected the user to how the quirks inside of it could be used with a dash of psychic powers was what that broken quirk factor that Izuku possessed brought to the table. This was the only explanation that they could conceive as they weren't quirk scientist or scholars, but considering how quirks and their inner mechanics sometimes defied logic and biology, then maybe this explanation was the truth about Izuku's situation. Izuku was using his now repaired original quirk to interact with OFA, and since said quirk took OFA's power to fix itself, then Izuku was unable to feel that difference, that quirk was now part of OFA for all intent and purposes even if it belonged to Izuku, but he was to focused on his training to care about this, and the vestiges didn't knew how to tell him that at the moment.

The second day of the summer camp started and everyone aside from Izuku was doing some kind of specialized training to push their quirks to the limit. Izuku decided to take a trek through the whole perimeter while carrying two notebooks, a pencil, and a map of the area.

Since they were in the mountains, Izuku decided to do something that Kinoko would appreciate and he decided to seek and find all the mushrooms that he could find to create a list of them to show her later alongside some quick drawings of them. She complained a little about the fact that they weren't going to be allowed to free roam the perimeters and since Izuku was allowed to do that, then he decided to at least give her the second best thing that she could get at the moment, and since this whole place was big enough, then nobody would complain about him taking it easy.

It would be a way to see if all the information that Kinoko gave to him about mushrooms did sink into his head, she did love mushrooms thanks to her quirk and Izuku felt that if he really wanted to show how serious he was with the idea of forming a relationship with her, then he at least needed to make an effort to show that he cared about her likes and dislikes. She did the same for him, but he knew that he had lost his passion for things that he liked in the past and he didn't want her to feel like she wasn't putting in the same effort as he did, he liked to see her happy and that for him was enough.

So what started with the intention of searching for mushrooms in the area to draw them for Kinoko, became a foraging session thanks to the fourth vestige's knowledge about what one could find in nature to sustain yourself, and that impromptu decision did pay off by the time of dinner in which they were told that they would have to do that for themselves, Izuku did helped everyone to get a better dinner thanks to what he gathered alongside the ingredients that they were allowed to use and that made the puss*cats comment about how Izuku was that knowledge about foraging ingredients in the mountain.

"Well..., since my girlfriend likes mushrooms so much..., I got into searching info about where to locate them in nature, and one thing led to another and I did learn about foraging in nature by the time I realized what I was doing..." Izuku said. He knew at this point that almost everyone in the first course knew about their relationship status with each other and Izuku had no trouble talking about it now. He watched how the heroine Pixie-Bob groaned in despair when she heard the word girlfriend coming from Izuku's lips and she then fell to the ground in an exaggerated manner.

Izuku got near her while being concerned and after checking her pulse he decided to talk

"No answer... It's just a corpse." Izuku said and then he moved back to the dinner table.

"Hey! Don't kill me off just yet...!" The heroine said after recovering from the shock.

The rest of the dinner was more peaceful after that event. Izuku showed Kinoko what he found out during his trekking through the area and was happy to see that there were a lot of matsutake mushrooms there. The pictures that izuku drew were pretty enough and she enjoyed the fact that Izuku made those notes for her to see later at her convenience.

She still was trying to find something that she could do to make him happy and even if she knew that Izuku was happy by making her happy, she felt that it would be for the best to help him find something that makes him happy that has nothing to do with her. She knew that a lot of people in a relationship would consider someone like Izuku desirable and easy to manipulate, but she cared for his well-being.

The day that was promised for the students to try their hands at climbing came and a lot of them were almost eager to try it.

The puss*cats specialized in mountain rescue operations and were veterans in that particular field of rescue operation. That meant that they had in their agency a lot of climbing gear that they let the students of U.A. use for this training session and they were surprised to see that izuku had his own climbing gear on his person. That was the famed climbing mod that Izuku designed based on what he saw from generic climbing gear that was available for the public but was adapted for the hero job. In a business in which uniqueness was part of a hero's brand and marketability, to see a hero student actively choosing a generic design for an important part of his gear was almost baffling, but since that climbing mod was designed for the ease of use of everyone that would want to use it, then maybe that was Izuku's take on being unique in this business, to chose the common good even when designing your gear was a bold statement to be sure.

The heroes led the students to a more ample space and the heroine Pixie-bob used her quirk to create some walls that they would climb first before moving to something more real. they coached them about how to use the climbing gear that they were loaned adn the puss*cats almost made a double take when they saw Izuku climbing those walls up and down with ease in less than a minute.

They did had to remember the fact that Izuku had to climb the central tower of the I-Island, which was almost as tall as a mountain in less than three minutes to save the day in the I-Island incident, and even if he used his quirk to go that fast, it was still an impressive feat on it own.

They let Izuku to his devices and he pretty much helped some of the students with the gear before he moved to climb a mountain that was nearby their area, an act that took him less than ten minutes to the point that even the heroes were surprised, said surprise increased when they saw him descending from the top of the mountain and landing near them in his wingsuit that was stored inside the gliding mod that he also had in his suit. at this point some of the students there alongside the teachers and heroes though that izuku had discovered a passion for high-risk sports adn he let said passion blend into his hero suit and gear.

The time for a bath came after dinner and while the students of both classes and Izuku were bathing together in the hot springs, the girls and the boys had their own place to bath that was separated by a wooden wall.

The boys didn't really had too much to talk about because Izuku's taciturn presence alongside the reluctance of the students of 1-A to talk with Izuku made an awkward situation that kept everyone quiet there.

The girls were a little more open to communicating in comparison, but it was clear that the topic of romantic partners and how their male classmates could fare became a touchy subject for the girls of 1-A when Kinoko talked about her experience with Izuku since they started hanging out as a couple.

"He is just happy as long as I am happy..., he even committed to memory things about mushrooms just because I love them..., I mean, I am happy that he appreciates what I like, but I am concerned sometimes for his well-being..., I can tell that sometimes he takes things to an uncomfortable extreme just to make me happy..." Kinoko said.

"Everyone here knows that Midoriya has a lot of unresolved issues that stems from his miserable time at school and that he is just trying his best despite his situation..." Itsuka said.

"I know..., but I sometimes feel that I am not doing more for him even if he says that it's okay..." Kinoko said.

"Sometimes..., the only thing one can do in this kind of situation is to keep pushing until you get to Midoriya's heart with this issue. You pretty much are the only one that can do something in that regard..." Setsuna said.

"You are right..., I need to try harder while being more patient..." Kinoko said.

The girls of 1-A did heard how Izuku was to Kinoko as her boyfriend and they felt a little jealous in a way. A boyfriend that pretty much considered your happiness as his top priority and put his money when his mouth was in a way was an appealing thing to some of them. A lot of those girls before the events of the sports festival considered him an unremarkable and dull boy, but it appeared that they were unable to see the diamond in the rough that Izuku was, not even Ochako, the girl that developed feelings for him saw it and now he was involved with someone that stumbled into that treasure and was able to appreciate it while the rest was to blind to see it, but in all fairness to them, Izuku only made the meteoric progress that made him shine even brighter that he was in the first place after he touched rock bottom in a way in the sports festival and the students of 1-A did only reached that conclusion when he was already out of their reach and saw how the class broke itself apart when Izuku was not there anymore..., a lot of people in the past believed that it was Kirishima the one that glued them together, but in a way, it was Izuku's presence that keet they united, without Izuku, the class started to bleed students until their recent loss in the I-Island.

Some of them were praying for a break from that streak of bad luck that had affected their school life in U.A. and wanted a return to something close to what they had before izuku parted ways with them, but for how long this curse of bad luck will last?

Chapter 16

Chapter Text

The life of Shoto Todoroki had been a rollercoaster since the beginning. The moment that his quirk manifested and he had the power that his dad coveted, he was denied the chance of a normal childhood or to be a normal person, it was only training after training for him and then his mom snapped and scarred his face. one would expect that seeing how his actions had caused his wife to go mad, then Endeavor would pick up the clue that he was doing thing wrong, but the man's obsession with surpassing All Might prevented him from seeing that. He just doubled down on training Shoto and for as hard as he went, he always let Shoto to get away with not using his fire because he believed that he would grow out of it, but what happened in Hosu made the man at last realize that he messed up again big time. The death of Touya Todoroki weighed on his conscience and in his attempt to avoid his mistakes that ended with Touya's death, he just made new ones.

Shoto was now unprepared to be a civilian and the hit that his reputation took after he attacked Izuku during the sports festival when that video shattered that kid's soul didn't earn him any favors with the hero community. Endeavor was a hardass kind of hero, but one didn't earned the second place as a top hero in Japan without being able to have some sense of decorum and the ability to act with a certain understanding of the situation to know what is appropriate to do or not, and Endeavor in his futile quest to get Shoto to use his quirk at his fullness had forgotten to train Shoto into be more socially aware and able to understand what to do and what not to do. Now, that lack of training left Shoto Todorki to lost to know what to do as a general course student.

At this point, Endeavor realized that in his quest to surpass All Might, he had ended up destroying his family by his own hands. The shame of that realization made him skip going back to his family home and leave his kids alone, he had already done enough damage already, but when a black-haired man with multiple scars who was accompanied by a man made of black mist looked at the endeavor house with a deranged glare while only Shoto was there after school, Endeavor would had wish that in that day, he would have decided to be there in those moments.

The last day of the summer camp was one that a lot of them would never forget, and not for the right reasons. they packed their things up and returned to U.A. before going back to their homes. The chat on the bus was just about how much fun they had while others complained about the rigorous training that they did there.

Izuku and Kinoko were just chatting about the event of the previous night and how that test of courage was a little dull when it was their turn to go into the forest because Izuku sensed their classmates' presence in time to be on guard against any scare.

All of them were blissfully unaware of what was about to happen to an ex-student of the hero course who had an unexpected reunion with a ghost of the past that ended up burning Endeavor's house to cinders. Shoto's other siblings were away at that moment and were spared from what happened there. There was no traces of Shoto Todoroki and when they were able to recover some footage from the security cameras that were there before they were destroyed, they saw that the league of villains that attacked the USJ were involved and that Shoto Todoroki had been kidnaped after being injured by a black haired boy that created blue flames that aimed a fireball to his face.

The news hit the students who had in a way forgotten the events of the I-Island really hard. All Might at this point knew that the League of Villains and AFO were connected thanks to the info that was extracted from the villains that attacked the I-expo. All Might and Gran Torino traveled back to the island to see the interrogation of those villains and the one that called himself Nine revealed a lot of information about AFO and the fact that not only he survived the beating that All Might inflicted on him, but also he planted a spy in the first year that was already dead.

This attack on Shoto Todoroki and Endeavor's house was now something that they were able to pin on AFO, there was also the fact that nine, as a last f*ck you to the supervillain that treated him like a disposable pawn, decided to reveal the location of his hideout alongside the lab were the nomus were located alongside the identity of the doctor that worked alongside AFO.

A final bout between All Might and AFO was now being prepared and while AFO was preparing a message to dare All Might to come to Kamino to face him to save Shoto Todoroki, All Might and the heroes were already preparing themselves with the info that they had available to counter AFO's forces. An order to kill Doctor Garaki was given and some powerful heavy hitters were assigned to the group that was going to attack that nomu's lab with the intention to go full scorched earth on that place. But with all those preparations done, there was one detail that the heroes and people in U.A. failed to address. in this world, since there was no assault on the summer camp, there was the idea of keeping the students of both classes locked up in U.A. to keep them safe, and none of the teachers or even Nezu decided to tell those students that they should stay clear of Kamino ward in Yokohama. A place that Izuku and Kinoko decided to go on a date on the same day that the raid to the villains' base and the nomu factory was planned.

If AFO could say that he was frustrated about how things were going, then the time that he had to deal with All Might alongside some of those other heroes was the moment that he was at the limit of his patience.

His attempts to get Dabi under their side did backfire in a way and his inability to get Nine killed because he didn't care at all about giving that lab rat a self-destructive quirk in case he revealed information about him under the belief that Nine would die soon was what got him in this situation. He fancied himself as a demon lord and he just f*cked up the part of having an insurance policy against rats that could squeal on him. The nomus that were meant to be his main force were being aniquilated by a group of heroes that had assaulted the Nomu factory, leveled the whole building and got Doctor Garaki killed because the man was unable to escape in time.

Dabi, Tomura, Muscular, Moonfish, and Kurogiri weren't match for those heroes, and even if Dabi decided to use the quirk that he had now after AFO stole and gave him Shoto's quirk while leaving his little brother quirkless after telling him that not only revealing his identity to him but also torturing him for being a disappointment that took his place in the family by using the quirk that was taking away from him to train with his body made a difference in the battlefield. Those heroes were prepared for them and considering that Dabi's usage of Shoto's quirk surprised the heroes for one second, it appeared that his plans had been ruined beyond any chance to be repaired.

And now he was sensing the locations of two individuals in his head for two different reasons. He could feel OFA embers of power in All Might and a stronger presence nearby, but when he decided to activate that broken pyrokinetic quirk that he stole a long time ago that he had the doctor repair as best as he could so he could use it in this fight. The second stronger presence was now being sensed by that quirk as well..., he felt an overwhelming desire to go to that second presence for some reason. That pyrokinetic quirk was strongly reacting to that presence to the point that AFO was unable to keep it under control. That overwhelming desire did resonated with him to the point that his obsession with OFA and that reaction overlapped each other and he then ran away from that fight against All Might and those heroes.

"...!" Izuku was now trying to guide the civilians that were still in the area, and he sensed that something was targeting him with a combination of hostility and obsession that made Danger Sense go crazy. Gran Torino found both Kinoko and him in the area before the raid and since it was too late to get them out of there, he told them both that they had permission to use their quirks if needed, but they needed to get out of the way. they decided to help on the sidelines by getting some civilians out of the way.

"Izuku!?" Kinoko asked, she saw that Izuku suddenly turned his body in the direction in which the battle between All Might and a villain was happening and Izuku suddenly got into a fighting stance.

"Kinoko..., ran. Something is coming for me and only me..., I don't want you to get injured, so please..." Izuku said. Kinoko listened to his words and even if she wanted to ask, she knew that if Izuku was telling her that, then she should listen.

"Okay..., please, be safe." Kinoko said and after she saw that Izuku smiled at her before he got back in that fighting position, she ran away.

"He is coming..." The voice of Yoichi was now reaching him. The vestiges knew that this was now the time for round nine in their fight

"Get ready kid..., this is going to be a hard fight that you can't avoid by the looks of it." Kudo said. They weren't sure about if Izuku could do this, but if he refused to let the events of the past break him, then AFO was not going to succeed, they had the hope that Izuku would somehow pull this one off.

"Sooner or later..., this was going to happen. Since AFO survived, then is now up to you..." Bruce said.

"We shared with you as much info as we could to help you train, and even the memories of those that valiantly fought against him. We are sorry that we can't do more for you now..." Hikage Shinomori said. he was the only wielder of OFA who never fought against the man and spent his life trying to cultivate OFA power to allow his successor to have a better chance to win. He was confident in Izuku's chances considering that All Might defeated the villain before and even if Izuku was not as powerful as All Might was at the moment, Izuku had shown that he was creative enough to compensate for his lack of power with the usage of all the quirks at OFA's disposal alongside the one that he inadvertently added to the mix.

"You have this on the bag, kid. You are a tough cookie and bright enough to push forward regardless of any obstacle in your way. AFO is just one big obstacle for you to surpass" Daigoro Banjo said. He was still a little salty about the fact that Izuku learned to use his quirk the last, but the kid was too much of a stubborn individual to give up and he respected that, even at his lowest, Izuku just soldiered on and continued his quest to be a hero, he could respect that.

"Your strongest weapon is your mind, you know how to use our quirks in tandem and can get creative with them. never forget that..." En Tayutai said. The vestiges had the feeling that this was their last fight and they wanted to give Izuku some words of encouragement.

"Don't forget to smile as you go on with your life, as long as you stand up and don't lose your ability to smile even at your lowest, then evil didn't triumph yet..." Nana Shimura said. she was proud of Toshinori's choice of succesor and she could see some similarities between Izuku and Toshinori at this point.

"Everyone..." Izuku said. he heard the vestiges' words and felt what they tried to say to him. they were trying to cheer him up for one last fight.

"We are here." Izuku said, taking a page from All Might and saying a variation of his catchphrase that the vestiges heard. Even if Izuku was the one who was going to fight the villain now, he was not alone, they were with him.

AFO was getting overwhelmed with his obsession with reclaiming OFA the closer he got to that presence. he reached that place and was able to see thanks to his quirks that a lone boy who was the one that held OFA was there. he was staying his ground in that abandoned street and he then moved for the kill.

"..." Izuku closed his eyes and then he waited for the last second before OFA got near him to extend his arm, and Izuku gently moved away and retaliated by releasing a gust of wind with the flickering of his fingers that Izuku aimed at the hole in that man's left hand.

"AHHH!" AFO felt how that current of wind entered that hole and caused a lot of internal damage to that arm to the point that it made a hole in his shoulder.

"..." Izuku kept his mouth closed and focused on his surroundings while he watched how the villain was now enraged after the pain snapped him from his obsession.

"DIE YOU BRAT!" AFO screamed and tried to murder Izuku with all the quirks that he had at his disposal and then AFO watched how Izuku causally dodged those attacks of his with ease while Izuku retaliated from time to time, hitting him with Blackwhip or a gust of wind.

Izuku was using Flow to detect and react to that overwhelming killing intent that AFO had and his body moved to a safe position or keep him moving so he could get out of the way.

"STAY STILL!" AFO's rage was making him to get more wild with his attacks while giving Izuku far more tells that he could use to dodge.

"No." Izuku said and then he retaliated again, he was aiming at the villain's hands in order to reduce that man's chance to use AFO in the case that he committed a slip-up. As much as he could use the broken vehicles and other parts of the street to attack with Blackwhip, he had to hold off at the moment, he was doing something illegal even if he was given permission to use his quirk and there was so much that one could get away with even if you were given a green light to use your quirk before you were considered a villain.

Izuku knew that this was one of those situations in which going all out was excusable, but he preferred to keep those things intact just in case. even if Izuku was not averse to using his surroundings as a weapon, there was a time when that was allowed and a time when it was unnecessary.

Izuku did sense that the heroes were coming and when All Might and Gran Torino entered the fray and saw that AFO was badly wounded while Izuku was barely injured. his casual clothes were ragged but there was no blood or injuries on him.

"AFO!" All Might shouted. AFO committed the mistake of turning his head to look at All Might and then Izuku rushed at the man and sucker punched him in the face, breaking his mask in the process. AFO fell to the ground and felt that he was at his limit now.

"You are one ugly motherfu..." Izuku tried to say, but then AFO recovered in time and was able to grab him in order to activate AFO to steal OFA.

The red lines of electricity that emerged from Izuku and were going to AFO's body scared All Might and for a couple of seconds AFO was smirking, but then green lines made of fire emerged from his body and went to Izuku's body.

"No..., this can be...!" AFO said, he felt that something was going on with his body. He felt the power of OFA inside of him, but he felt how his body was unable to hold that power.

"OFA now is too powerful to be held by any quirked person..., it had reached the singularity thanks to me, and now all that power will destroy someone from the inside in one way or another, quirkless or not..." Izuku said. His eyes were glowing green now with a light that illuminated the nighttime streets.

"Is time to end this..." Izuku said and then he created a small green flame that he then fired at All Might's body. That flame harmlessly phased through his body and he then felt how his waning strength returned.

"Young Midoriya...!" All Might said. He looked at Izuku and he saw how Izuku looked at him

"All Might! it's time!" Izuku said and All Might then prepared to release one last hit that put the villain down for good. All Might pullet whatever strength he could muster into that one last hit and he was surprised to see that AFO didn't resited or bothered to defend himself. He just took that hit and then he died. AFO died with an uncharacteristic placid smile on his broken face for some reason, like he had accepted and embraced what was about to happen to him in those moments.

The conflict between OFA and AFO was over now, and All Might felt how those last embers of power that were left on him were gone for good.

"Is funny..., that monster coveted OFA for so long for a reason that he forgot..., he didn't wanted the power inside of that quirk, but to recover the last fragment of what remained in this world of his beloved twin brother..., a twin that he killed in a fit of anger by mistake." Izuku said while looking at the corpse of that villain that caused so much damage and destruction in life. He felt pity in a way. in those moments that AFO tried to steal OFA from him. The inner world of both quirks collided and then Izuku was able to see what that man truly wanted, what he truly coveted. His broken quirk that had been assimilated by OFA in those moments connected with AFO as well. both twin brothers reunited and in the end. Izuku offered the vestige of that broken man a deal, a deal that Yoichi and the others approved, and then both sides won in this conflict.

AFO recovered the power of OFA for himself, but since his body was not going to survive the process, then he would die, fulfilling OFA's desire of wanting to put an end to the villain for good. With his plans destroyed, his minions incapacitated or killed, and with his injuries threatening his life and no chance to recover. Then the ultimate demon lord took that deal and accepted his death..., at least he would spend those last moments with Yoichi.

"So... it's over now..." All Might asked.

"Yes..., AFO and OFA does not exist anymore..." Izuku said, closing his eyes, and then he took a deep breath.

"And what about your..." All Might asked.

"My quirk? Well, that depends on how you formulate that question..." Izuku said in a cryptic way.

"And what that means?" All Might asked.

"If you ask if I hold OFA..., then I have to say that no. OFA is not in me anymore..., but if you ask if I have a quirk..." Izuku said and then he made a finger snap motion with his fingers and a green fireball appeared and floated on the tip of his finger.

"Then I will have to say that yes. I do have a quirk, the one that I was born with that AFO stole from me when I was a child...with some additionalcompensation" Izuku said. That surprised All Might.

"I see..." All Might said, remembering the conversation that he had with his mother about that detail that Izuku told him about how he was born with a quirk that then was broken at the age of 4

"You know something...? I talked with Nana before she and the others decided to stay with AFO, and she told me that she was proud of your career as a hero." Izuku said.

"Nana..." All Might softly say.

"But that still makes me ask a question..., can I still be your successor now? I mean..., I got rid of OFA..., and that could..." Izuku tried to say, but all might put his hand on his shoulder.

"Of course..., you are and always be my successor. Izuku." All Might said while flashing his trademark smile.

"Thank you..., but now there is a lot to do by the looks of it..., and I'm going to need for you to vouch for me on this one..." Izuku said and then he pointed at the sky. All Might saw a couple of helicopters from the news that were in the air filming what had happened and then he understood what Izuku was trying to say.

"Well..., you have the talent to get yourself into trouble, young Midoriya...." All Might said.

"Well..., some part is on my own, the other..., the other came from what I learned from my mentor" Izuku said while laughing a little.

"Hehe. Aren't you a clever one?" All Might said and then the whole raid in Kamino was over. The League of Villains and AFO were dealt with and despite the loss of OFA, the world was safe because AFO was also out of the picture. Izuku may have given up that power for the sake of the world, but he regained what he lost all those years ago as a reward for that one act of mercy to that villain who was about to die. The time to rebuild what had been destroyed and to try to heal up from the injuries that had been caused was at hand. Izuku did knew that the job of a hero was never done, but for now, he would had to rest and come to terms with what happened.

Chapter 17

Chapter Text

Izuku was a little anxious, a day had passed after the whole mess of the Kamino ward and things did not went as well as All Might told him that they were meant to be.

Sure. AFO was dead, that doctor was also dead and the members of the League of Villains were incarcerated in special jails for them. but Shoto Todoroki had been broken to the point that he was in a mental hospital after the torture that he endured at the hands of a villain called Dabi, who not only revealed himself as the not so deceased Touya Todoroki, but also had his quirk stolen and rendered quirkless alongside that torture did messed up his mind to the point that the only thing that prevented him from having a mental breakdown was the fact that he was under heavy medication at all time.

He had invited Kinoko to his home and he was trying to find the courage to reveal the truth to her. there was no point now in holding the secret that was OFA and AFO now because people would know sudden or later.

"Kinoko..." Izuku steeled himsefl and then he spoke to her.

"Yes...?" kinoko said. she did sensed that Izuku was strugling with something inside of him and she decided to not push him.

"i will tell you the truth..., a truth that despite being part of a secret that in the past could had put lives in danger just by knowing it, now that said truth is unreachable anymore in a way..., then you deserve to know what happened..., why All Might fought that villain and why I had to fight it as well..., you deserve it..." Izuku said

"ok..., i will listen." Kinoko said.

"Thank you..." Izuku said and then he started to recount his tale. Kinoko heard the truth about Izuku and his unexpected connection to a conflict between twins on different sides of the law and how he ended up being affected in a way by both of them.

"I was born with one quirk at birth..., my mother asked for a blood test on me when i was born and i had a quirk factor in my body..., but all changed when i went to a quirk specialist to see what could be my quirk." Izuku said. kinoko listened to his tale and just waited for him to continue.

"That doctor worked with a villain that had the power to steal quirks..., that villain stole my quirk whne i was 4 years old..., but he made a poor job out of it..." Izuku said.

"What?" Kinoko asked.

"The quirk that i was born with was..., unstable at that age and it reacted porly to the attempt to be stolen, my quirk self destroyed itself to not being stolen..., but the villain took up to 99% of my quirk and that left me with a broken quirk factor that became useless and condemnedme to a chilhood of discrimination..., but i wasn't quirkless." Izuku took a deep breath, he then saw how kinoko urged him to continue.

"That villain's quirk, AFO, had the power to steal and give quirks, he had a twin brother that had a quirk that could only be passed to another person and that quirk had being passed up to eight times..., and guess who had that quirk up to yesterday?" Izuku asked, kinoko stared at him and then she pointed at him.

"Yes..., the quirk that AFO's twin had, OFA, had being passed from hero to hero and in the entrenace exam of U.A. I recieved it from the one that held it before me. Unfortunately, that quirk was to powerful even for me to handle and the lack of any real support or someone that could help me to get it under control made me to hurt myself until i got help after the sports festival..." Izuku said.

"Hooh..." Kinoko said.

"The thing is that my broken quirk factor ended up being assimilated by OFA, and in a way, it repaired my quirk, which in a way was at the same time that I started to train with Gran Torino..." Izuku said.

"And now we are going to skip to the events of yesterday because, after Gran Torino's training, there is no OFA related issues until the Kamino incident..." He looked at Kinoko who was surprised about what he was saying now.

"Okay..., so what happened yesterday after I ran away?" Kinoko asked. She was still upset at the whole thing, but she knew better than to stay and fight against a villain that put people like All Might on edge.

"That villain..., AFO, came to me because not only he sensed OFA inside of me..., but the part of my quirk that he had on him was tracking me as well... his obsession with OFA got doubled with the unstable quirk that was inside of him wanting to be reunited with me to the point that he ran away from All Might..., he ran away from the man that he hated the most to face me because I became the new target of his obsession for a couple of minutes..." Izuku said, Kinoko listened to that and she was surprised in a way.

"So I fought him from a distance and in a moment he was able to sneak past my defenses. He got his hands on me and tried to use AFO to steal OFA..., but that was the last mistake that he committed..., and even knowing that, at that point, he got what he wanted..." Izuku said.

"Did he stole that OFA quirk...?" kinoko asked.

"The answer is complicated. OFA is one of those quirks that could resist being stoled because that quirk can be given, not taken. A strong will alongside the villain's weak emotions did prevent him in the past from stealing it from my predecessors..., so I decided to do something that was merciful and cruel at the same time." Izuku said.

"What that is supposed to mean?" Kinoko asked, confused at what Izuku said.

"...I gave it away. I allowed the villain to take that quirk after telling him what would happen to him if he took it. OFA was too strong now to be contained in a human body, and the man's injuries wouldn't helped him out anyway. So when OFA and AFO were connected when the villain tried to steal OFA. I was able to sense what he wanted..., and he wanted OFA so badly because it was the last thing that belonged to his twin brother who died a long time ago. Even when I told him what would happen, he was desperate enough to bargain with me, he was willing to return the quirk that he stole from me a long time ago as long as I relinquished OFA to him..., so I gave it to him with no strings attached after talking with the vestiges inside of OFA and they accepted going to AFO..."

"So..., are you...?" Kinoko asked, afraid of the possibility of Izuku having to lose his quirk for good in order to stop that villain.

"No..., before the connections was broken. AFO decided to force my quirk that he had stoled in the past that he had inside of him with some extra goodies as a reward..., he also told me in his last moments that he created the most annoying hero in the past by forcing a quirk into his brother..., so he decided to create another one by forcing my original quirk back to me..." Izuku said and then he gently snapped his fingers and from one tip of his fingers, a small stream of green fire was emitted.

"Whoa...!" Kinoko was surprised, she saw how that green stream of fire danced in the air while drawing something in the air.

"K♥I...!" Kinoko said. She watched how Izuku drew a heart in the air with those three letters written in the center of it. She touched those flames and didn't hurted her at all.

"My original quirk was a really powerful pyrokinesis, AFO's attempt to steal it broke it in the past, but now that not only is it back with me, but also the part that was meant to control it back in place. then now I can use it with no issue..., and that is not counting what AFO's scientists added to it in order to make it work to compensate for the lack of control that it lacked on AFO's hands." Izuku said.

"Ohhh..." Kinoko said. It appeared that in the end, Izuku's selflessness was rewarded.

"So now I'm back to the drawing board, I need to see if I can replicate what I could do in the past and then to see how far my quirk can go..., but that will be on school." Izuku said.

"That is a sensible idea." Kinoko said.

"Yeah..., but can you promise me something, Kinoko?" Izuku said.

"Sure..., but what is it?" Kinoko asked.

"The next time we go on a date..., you choose the place. I'm afraid that any place I could choose ends with a villain trying to ruin our date..." Izuku said.

"Okay..., I will respect your request" Kinoko said.

"Good..., thank you..., for listening to me..." Izuku said. Kinoko then held Izuku's hand and then she gave Izuku's right cheek a kiss.

"Thank you, for trusting me enough to reveal this..., it had to be hard..." Kinoko said.

"Yeah..., but now, a new chapter starts in this world..., one in which All Might is retired, and I have big shoes to fill now that the world knows that I am his successor and apprentice..., the path ahead will be tough, but with you at my side, I will prevail." Izuku said and then he looked into Kinoko's eyes, both shared an intimate moment in silence before they had to part ways. They would meet tomorrow to continue their education in U.A. as heroes in the making, but for now, that didn't matter.

A pink-haired student from a normal high school whose connection to Izuku was that she was a classmate of his during those moments that he suffered in Aldera. She was a coward like those other kids who refused to be friends with him because Bakugo made the point to target those who were friendly to Izuku as a warning to not be kind to him. She had to see how Izuku was beaten like a dog and took only one month of knowing that Bakugo was not coming back for her to try to at least make amends.

She had no skill with technology and lacked a quirk that could help her in that regard..., but she had a really smart cousin who despite being a shut-in, she was really capable with computers. So when she saw how she suddenly became more active again, she tried to ask her for help. She expected her to tell her that she was not going to help her to do what she wanted to do, but she was on board.

"There are people in this world that are unfit to be heroes..., and that Bakugo boy is a clear example of who should be allowed to even think that they deserve to be on the streets..." She remembered hearing her cousin saying that. She also remembered that she mentioned how it wasn't fair that her dear gentleman or something like that suffered for being a good person while Bakugo was allowed to be a villain freak with no consequence, but she was too busy being thankful for her help to ask questions and then after that, her cousin disappeared.

"Manami..., I hope that you are doing fine..." the girl said to herself when she returned home. the news about what happened in Kamino was being released on TV and now the world knew that Izuku was not only All Might's successor but also his apprentice a well.

"It appeared that people in Aldera were so wrong..., you were the one that was destined to do great things..., not that villain freak that Bakugo was..." She muttered in a low voice when she saw the news. there was a small part of her that felt that she was in a way responsible for this situation. After all, she convinced her cousin to help her release that video about Bakugo's true nature, and that in a way got that villain locked up for good. She was not self-centered enough to believe that she had played a great part in all of this, but she felt good knowing that her actions created a chain reaction that helped Izuku in a long way.

"Midoriya..., you can do it..." The girl said in a silent prayer and then moved on with her life. Their paths were now too far away and she felt that revealing the truth about what she did would hurt Izuku, so she kept it to herself and just wished that his career as a hero was a plentiful one. this was her form of atonement for not being able to even offer a helping hand in his time of need.

The next day of class after the events of Kamino were interesting, to say the least. The other students were looking at Izuku with awe and admiration as he walked through the hallways of U.A,, there was one blond of the third year who had a contemplative expression when looking at him, but Izuku paid him no mind.

His routine after that day became one long training session to figure his quirk out again, a process that was less painful than Izuku imagined, but he had to return to the drawing board in a way.

He was able to at least salvage some of the skills and combat techniques that he developed when he used OFA, but even if his pyrokinesis was altered enough to allow him to replicate some of his previous quirks in a way, he had to lament the lost of his ability to use Gear Shift and Fa Jin in a way. Even if he could give shape to that flame that his quirk created with his thoughts to do things that defied reason and put said pyrokinesis in question. His limits at the moment did deprived him of a way to recall with his quirk how he used those two quirks.

He was going back to basic training with Gran Torino because in his words, OFA was a unique quirk and even if Izuku could draw from his experience with OFA to learn how to use his new quirk, it was for the best to help Izuku to get a solid foundation with new his quirk before returning to normal training.

Izuku only stopped during lunchtime to hang with Kinoko and her friends before returning to his training.

There was a lot to do now and Izuku needed to return to form again. He had to do some mental gymnastics to figure out how he could explain how his Kinetic Energy Manipulation quirk evolved into pyrokinesis without revealing the truth about OFA and AFO. All Might decided that this was something that he had to do, and he told him that he would keep his involvement at a minimum on his part on that whole fight so people would not focus too much on him at the moment.

The pressure that Izuku would face in the future would put him to the test, but he was now confident in his bonds and friends to succeed in his dream, and after all that happened, he was now on the starting line like he was when he got OFA, but now it was for real this time with his own power, his own quirk.

Chapter 18

Chapter Text

In three jails in Japan, a similar scene was happening while Izuku and the other students of 1-A and 1-B were busy training while trying to create super moves in U.A.

One jail was for adults, the kind of penitentiary center that was suited for criminals that quite didn't made the cut to full villainy, but their actions were reprehensible, in this one, the large majority of the faculty of Aldera school, that same school that Izuku went before U.A. were detained for their actions in covering Bakugo's crimes among other things.

The second one was less of a jail, and more of a center for rehabilitation for troubled youth. In this one, were those students of Aldera who were the worst offenders, not only in their abuse to Izuku, but to other students that they considered weak. They were almost as vile as Bakugo, but their quirks were pathetic enough and the amount of infractions that they did was small enough to not send them to a more severe place.

And the third one..., was Tartarus. This jail was for villains of the worst kind that were captured in Japan and in one cell, Katsuki Bakugo was there. He was still in denial about the situation and the only thing that prevented him from using his quirk to escape was that his arms were too damaged now to even use his quirk.

in those places, two guards were commenting what happened in Kamino ward the other day and those three groups of individuals heard from their mouths something that would hurt their prides.

"Hey..., how do you feel about the whole Kamino incident...? I still can't believe what happened..." Those words reached those people while they were in their respective cells in their respective jails and their curiosity was peaked.

"Yeah..., to live to see how All Might had to retire and to see that the man had been injured in the past and still pushed himself to still be a hero is quite something..." The mention of All Might returning in a way caught Bakugo's attention. His sanity did took a severe hit during his incarceration and he had in his mind the desire to kill All Might from getting in his way when he wanted to get rid of that sh*tty Deku.

"You are right in a way..., At least he revealed that he had a successor that showed a lot of promise in that incident even if he got there by pure chance..., the poor bastard took his girlfriend there for a nice date and then he was balls deep in that whole mess..., I pity the kid..."

"Yeah..., it has to suck that you are not only a student of a hero course, but also a civilian in that situation, and then you had to get involved anyways..., at least the kid and his girlfriend got permission to use their quirks if they needed to..., for what was said. The boy and his girl were just helping in the rescue efforts of civilians to move them to a safe place and then the kid had to take that villain that put the top five heroes in a bind on his own and he did pretty well." The conversation continued.

"Yeah..., and to think that said kid was a total noob with his quirk during the Sports Festival..., it appeared that U.A. either stepped the f*ck up and got their sh*t together and got that kid that pushed forward into the heroic course out of his pure force of will the help that he needed, or that kid was able to figure out his quirk on his own and got everything under control..., but I am unfortunately thinking that it was the latter." Those words this reached those three groups in their respective cells and now all of them started to make their own conclusions.

"No way..." In the minds of those people, the idea of Izuku Midoriya being All Might's successor was too much to take.

For the adults, this was more than one slap in the face. They all wrote Izuku off as a lost cause and they did their best to sabotage his scores so he would never succeed in the future, so to hear that said failure from their point of view was not only All Might's apprentice but also having the kind of popularity that they wanted to take advantage of was the worst kind of insult that they could receive. All their efforts to make sure that Bakugo entered U.A. while making sure that no one could outshine him from Aldera ended backfiring because, in the end, it was that not-so-quirkless kid that they were so sure that would never amount in his life to nothing was the one that obtained what they coveted while the one that they coddled and put their hopes on crashed and burned so hard that he dragged them all with him to their actual predicament.

For those students. their minds were unable to comprehend why someone so pathetic and weak as Izuku was in Aldera became All Might's apprentice and he thrived in life while they were left to rot to deal with the consequences of their actions. All of them believed in the fact that a flashy quirk made a person a hero and none of them ever questioned if what they did to Izuku was heroic or not. They were told that he was an acceptable target and they bullied him for it. But it was him the one that was the true hero while all of them were detained in that correctional, at least one or two of those bullies at last understood the severity of their actions and in a way, accepted their punishment with some grace after a couple of months of whining.

But it was Bakugo the one that took this revelation the worst. All his life, he had being told that he was better that anyone else. He had been always put on a pedestal with constant praises about his quirk and heroic potential while Izuku had been put down for being a quirkless freak who believed that he could be a hero, so he was unable to comprehend why things were going so wrong now. Why he was in jail because he was doing what he was used to do in the past? What changed now in U.A. that made his actions unacceptable? A normal person would at least try to do some soul searching, but Bakugo never in his life had been punished for his actions and now the only thing that he could do was to do the things that he used to do in Aldera and in U.A. deal with his anger before the consequences of his actions caught up with him.

"sh*tTY DEKU!!!" He screamed as hard as he could.

"Shut the f*ck up, you villain freak!" One of the guards said. that was the only answer that he received now when he opened his mouth, but the truth was that he was the useless one now. he was in a jail for dangerous villains until the end of his life, he was strapped to a chair while forced to wear a straight jacket and he had no chance for a parole after his constant threats to kill the judges and those that opposed him in his trial added more time to his sentence. All those dreams of greatness and glamour that he had were now a bitter reminder of his failures and how he would never be a hero that could surpass All Might because he was never worthy to be a hero in the first place. The only thing that he could do was to take refuge in his delusions to the point that he created in his own mind a fantasy world in which he was allowed to be free from this place and to be the hero that he dreamed of..., but even in his imaginary world, Izuku Midoriya was a far better hero that he could ever be.

"That was something...intense" Setsuna said. They had spent the last week before the provisional hero license exam training like crazy to develop some ultimate moves that they could use in their careers. That exam was tomorrow and some of them were looking back to the progress that they had made in those past days.

"Yeah..., I agree, but that is also a part of what it means to be a hero. Ultimate moves are a part of what makes a hero unique thanks to the fact that those moves rely on the unique quirk of a person." Itsuka said.

"Mmm..." Yui nodded at Itsuka's words.

"Yeah..., you are right, but still. A less intense training would have been nice..., just saying." Setsuna said.

"Maybe you have a point..., but heroism is a physically demanding job. we need to be in top form and then improve from there because those that always push forward can succeed in this business..., besides, we are already taking it easy if we compare ourselves to Midoriya." Itsuka said.

"Please..., don't remind me..., if we didn't knew better, I would say that he only focused on training his body and quirk for hours..." Setsuna said. They knew that Izuku's position in U.A. gave him all the time that was meant to be used in the classrooms to be free for him to use at his leisure and Izuku used to train like a madman in those six hours of class each day before meeting Kinoko and then hanging up with her and then with Setsuna and the others.

"Well..., Izuku had to, unfortunately, play catch up with the rest of the students of the hero course considering how much of a late bloomer he is..., but I must say that he has caught up to everyone now..., I even dare to say that he surpassed some of us now." Kinoko said. Her worlds caught Setsuna and the others by surprise.

"Komori ! Don't scare me like that..., I was expecting that you were looking at the window while trying to look in Midoriya's direction at the moment..." Setsuna said.

"Come on Tokage..." Kinoko said.

"I'm kidding! but really, I was expecting for you to gaze at the window while thinking about Midoriya..., you did that from time to time in the past when you two started dating..." Setsuna said.

"Come on..., it wasn't that bad..., right?"

"Not as bad as Tokage says..., but you were distracted in a couple of classes, Komori." Itsuka said.

"Hehe..." Kinoko got embarrassed a little after that.

"Regardless..., I must say that Midoriya's help when he analyzed our quirks did help a lot of us to figure out some of our ultimate moves..." Setsuna said.

"I am happy to hear that..., that was his hobby before the sports festival debacle and he had recently decided to pick it back again..., he also says that he is still a little rusty." Kinoko said. Izuku did the other day after the events of Kamino revealed a lot about his past and how his life went before meeting each other. maybe it was because by recovering his original quirk after giving up OFA, Izuku felt that he should at least recover some part of what made him full in the past, so with that in mind, he tried to reignite his passion with quirk analysis and Kinoko was happy for him.

"If that was being rusty..., then I don't want to be on his wrong side if he gets back to his previous level." Itsuka said.

"Mmm..., I agree." Yui said. The rest of the day before the provisional hero license exam was dedicated to having the students go to the support studio to check up on their gear in case they needed to make one last-minute change and then they returned home to rest before tomorrow.

The day of the provisional hero license exam came and the students of both first years of the hero course of U.A. were in one bus to reach the location in which the exam would be done.

Izuku and Kinoko were sitting in the back while the others were sitting either with a classmate from their class or with someone from the other class.

Their nervousness was palpable and people tried to have a casual talk with their partner in order to relieve some of that tension. Some tried to have some small talk to get their minds off the exam, and others were talking about how ready they were, they were hyping themselves up for what was coming.

Izuku and Kinoko were just talking about random things and Kinoko told him that she was a little anxious about the exam, that since this was a competition between multiple hero school, that she was not sure if they could team up with other participants.

"You don't have to worry too much about the possibility of teaming up with other participants in the first part..., because no hero student from other hero schools is going to work with us..., there is a tradition that all those hero schools had that is called the "U.A. Crushing", those students will prioritize attacking us if they see us over attacking the others if those students of different schools see one of us. I call it an enemy of my enemy is my friend..., but in the end, they will backstab each other after dealing with a common enemy..." Izuku said. that did caught the attention of not only the others, but also of Midnight and Vlad King that were surprised about the fact that one of them actually learned about that tradition.

"No way!"

"What the hell!?"

"That is a little unfair..." the voices of some of those students were echoing in the bus.

"Midoriya..., where did you learn about that?" Vlad King asked. Izuku took a deep breath and then he looked at the man.

"Vlad King..., one as to put in a Google search the words "U.A." and "Provisional Hero License Exam" adn one of the first results is a whole Reddit community that is dedicated to the U.A. cruising..., that community is filled with post and threads about the students of U.A. and how their quirks work alongside theory crafting about potential developments that they could do and how to counter them..., there was a new post about us that talked a lot about our exploits in the sports festival and in my case, about what I did in Kamino..., there is also tier list about who is the most dateable and who are the top ten sexiest students in both genders..., and I call f*cking bullsh*t about Kinoko being a low tier beauty." Izuku said. his words caused for Setsuna to pick up her phone and search what Izuku had told right now.

"He is right sensei..., there is a f*cking Reddit community about that whole thing..., and I am a C tier!? What the hell!" Setsuna said. The others then followed Setsuna's example and they searched for that community.

"Well..., that is a...valid explanation..." Midnight said, she had been taken over class 1-A homeroom teacher duties from Eraserhead since he started to deal with the third-years.

"Yeah, it is..., so this at least lets us know that at least in the first part of that exam, we can't trust them." Izuku said. murmurs about what they should do now did filled the bus, and then Izuku decided to talk.

"That is a good thing in a way. we know exactly that they are not really that loyal to each other and their alliances are at best born out of their self-interest..., so we must join forces and act as a cohesive unit to crush them. We must show them what proper teamwork can do against those unsurmountable odds..., who is with me? Who wants to crush those that want to do that U.A. crushing tradition?" Izuku said. That in a way raised their morale.

The teachers were surprised to see that Izuku had been able to do that despite his previous meek disposition, but it was clear that he had grown up since those days after the sports festival, and that in a way made them proud.

When they reached the facilities where the exam was supposed to be done, the students of U.A. descended from the bus looking unfazed by what they were meant to face now, their eyes held a piercing glare that in a way intimidated some of the participants. Izuku stepped forward and only said one thing.

"We are here!" His words were not a threat, they were a warning to the other participants of the exam. they were ready to face them all and they would show them that the U.A. crushing would not stop them at all.

Chapter 19

Chapter Text

The "U.A. Crushing" Reddit community was now being looked at by the students of multiple schools to see if one of the participants made a post to talk about what they did and how many students of U.A. they crushed this year.

They held their breath before then one post appeared on the top page and a lot of those students that were still in their schools looked at it.

"Dear U.A. Crusing community..." that post read. the name of the user who published that post was MightyShroom96. the students were curious about what that `post contained and they clicked it to read it.

"My name is Izuku Midoriya..., I am sure that you people know who I am..., but I came to tell you all that you are a bunch of bitch-ass motherf*ckers. You plotted and schemed in this community because you people never thought about the idea of someone of U.A. fining about it, but I did. I found this place a day before the exam..., and let's just say that we, the students of U.A., are not in the mood for your petty tantrums. we found out about your plans, and all the info you got on us..., and we also know about that beauty tier list..., and let me tell you all that you crossed a line when you put my girlfriend in the F tier, you people lack taste, so my classmates and I decided to give your classmates of the hero course the B, that B stands for the boot in the ass to kick them out the first part of the exam and we send them all packing back to the bus that they came out. This is a warning, We are Here! PS: LibraStela81's quirk analysis of our powers is quite detailed and impressive..., you should consider a career as a quirk specialist..."

That post said. That caused a massive commotion in those schools and then when they saw that indeed, they were eliminated by the combined forces of U.A. students, it was clear that the "U.A. Crushing" of this year was not because they were able to take one student or two out, this year, the "U.A. Crushing" was because U.A. crushed them all...

In all the years that the Provisional Hero License exam was done, this was the first time that one single school was only able to pass to the second part of the test. The students of U.A. moved like a cohesive unit and took down the superior numbers of other schools by an impressive teamwork that was rooted in the knowledge that those students had of each other. the Heroes vs Villains exam that they did in the past helped them to understand how teamwork worked and even after the exam was over, the students of both classes tried at least to learn about the quirks of the others to know how to work with or around it. the experience that they had in that exam when they resolved the incidents also prepared them for the simulated rescue operation. even if they were dealing with paid actors this time, the situation was the same, and Izuku and the others were ready to deal with those injured civilians.

"Do not be alarmed..., this will not hurt at all." Izuku said and then he used his quirk to use one thing that came with his quirk now after AFO upgrade it.

Izuku then gently expelled some green flames from his hands and the actor was then surrounded by them. Izuku focused his mind and visualized a secure place to leave the man and then the actor's body flickered and then he vanished from the building and reappeared on the streets near some students of 1-A that took him to safety. By the time the heroes that were playing the villains attacked, Izuku and the others did already rescued everyone in the area and Gang Orca and his sidekicks were now facing a group of 34 students of U.A. that were ready to fight.

"Do not be alarmed..., I can control my flames to make sure that no damage could be done to the skin..., if that is a concern to you, Gran Orca..." Izuku said. he knew that the hero had an aquatic quirk that turned him into a humanoid orca and his pyrokinetic quirk could make him and his sidekicks more wary about fighint at their fullest.

"Duly noted..., but don't get so co*cky, boy." The hero said.

"I get you, but I am not co*cky..., I just know that I can count on my friends and classmates that are at my side at this moment..., the quality of the teamwork that one team can show is often better that the numbers of people that team up to deal with an unstoppable force..., as we did to those other schools when their U.A. crushing plan was countered by us working as a team to fight back against the 1506 remaining participants from other schools. Their alliance to take us down was shaky at best and they folded like paper the moment that they faced and united front instead of scattered students like they expected for us to go..." Izuku said while he stared at the hero.

"None of us are the next All Might, and we don't need to. All Might was one of a kind in what a hero is supposed to be, and to try to elevate the standards to pass this test now after his retirement because the HPSC is desperate to find a diamond in the rough that they could turn into his replacement is a foolish endeavor." Izuku said. He then sighed before he decided to cut his rambling short.

"But we came here to kick ass and take names, not to talk about backstage politics or to criticize the HPSC policies in general. That is for another time" Izuku said and then that snaped the hero from his stupor to see a kid from the hero school being so critical of the HPSC policies. And to think that said kid is All Might's apprentice made the whole thing more shocking.

The exam was over and then Izuku and the others were looking at their new temporal heroic licenses. Some were commenting about how the test went or were taking a selfie with their license.

"Ardor..., so you went with that hero name in the end?" Kinoko asked Izuku, both were waiting for the others to get on the bus and Kinoko saw that Izuku had chosen that name in the end to use as his own hero name.

"Yeah..., I never had a clear idea about what hero name I should choose for myself..., before the sports festival, that demeaning nickname was a possible choice..., but things changed and then I had been trying for so long to find a name or a word that I could resonate in a way, but now that I am...complete for real, then I found an inspiration..." Izuku said. Kinoko understood what Izuku was talking about when he said that he was complete now.

"Ardor..., is that a German word?" Kinoko asked, curious about what that meant.

"No..., is a Spanish word. It refers to the sensation of heat or flushing in some parts of the body that is caused by things like irritation and things that makes the body heat up... or something like that, the Google translator was a little glitchy that day..." Izuku said.

"Ohh..., I see."

"I chose that name because, in a way, it allowed me to honor All Might in a way while allowing me to keep my own identity as a hero. the choice for a word that starts with an A comes because I wanted to pay respects to All Might, but the rest of the name is all me..., he helped me to give that first step, but the rest of the way is something that I had to do on my own..." Izuku said.

"That is so sweet." Kinoko said.

"Maybe..., but not as sweet as you are." Izuku said. Kinoko got flustered a little but smiled at that.

"The rest are coming here now, we should get ready as well." Izuku said and then both Izuku and Kinoko waited for the others to reach the bus and then boarded it to return to U.A.

The madame president was in her office in the main building of the HPSC at this moment, she was reviewing some reports about certain participants on the exam that called the attention of the examinators, and considering that in this year, U.A. students had decided to crush the other participants to the point that only U.A. reached the second part of the exam, then it was clear that there was only one participant that called their attention.

"Izuku Midoriya..." She said. The fact that he was the apprentice of the now retired All Might and the reason that he took a teaching position in U.A. made that previous dull and unremarkable boy go from irrelevant to a target of interest to the HPSC.

The HPSC had been paying an eye to that kid after the incident that was caused by some dumb kids from Aldera caused a national scandal when that video showed to the public that one of their targets of interest was a fraud and a villain in the making.

The potential loss of Katsuki Bakugo as a future asset was felt, but people with a similar quirk or even better were easy to find and that softened the blow about that wasted potential, but Izuku's case was unique and fascinating at the same time.

Izuku had been shaped by his experience as a quirkless boy, so his mindset and way of doing things were too different from the kind of hero that they preferred, but Izuku was now in a stage of development that made him untouchable in a way. He was now a public figure who had at least a good reputation in the hero community despite not even having finished his first year in the hero course for his contributions to Stain capture, the I-Island incident, and then the Kamino incident made Izuku an international celebrity in the world and people would call foul if the HPSC tried something against him.

He was almost at All Might's level in the amount of precautions that the HPSC had to take while dealing with him, and now that they had some visual information about his actual potential as a hero that they recorded in today's exam, then the madama president decided to catalog Izuku in that same category that they had put All Might. Four simple letters were plastered in a dossier that read "DON'T" could be read on and that was a warning for her future successor in case they had the idea of trying to bring Izuku under their thumb. The HPSC had to strike a delicate balance and sometimes, that meant that less savory actions had to be done to keep the order, and if Izuku's almost negative opinion about the HPSC when he talked to Gang Orca was believed, then it was clear that Izuku was a little more than skeptical about them, a childhood full of discrimination and clear abuse that he suffered from part of the authority figures that should have helped Izuku in the past did not make him willing to trust the HPSC at it's fullest.

She got her position in the HPSC because his predecessor got a killer resignation in the form of a bullet to the head by a heroine who was pressured to the point of a mental breakdown when she was used to killing civilians that were a threat to his position to the HPSC and that made her to not push her luck at all with Hawks, the program to raise heroes whose loyalties were with the HPSC was shot down and aside from Hawks, the other kids were let go with no fuss to their families after being mind whipped from what they had being forced to endure before she took over. That man was more of a deranged tyrant who wanted to rule Japan while using the heroes as his pawns to force his way into power. She was no better than him in the sense that she was unable to fully put an end to the most unsavory practices that were done by the commission even if she was the president now. that level of corruption was too ingrained in the HPSC and she was at best able to try to restrain it a little.

The performance that Izuku showed as he led the charge with his classmates to take down those other students of other schools despite the odds being against them alongside how he performed as a rescue hero, using his quirk that had evolved recently to teleport people to safety or create fire constructs of support gear that allowed the other students of U.A. to work more efficiently, to then see how he fought with his pyrokinesis against a powerful hero and his sidekicks made the Madame President think that Izuku could go straight to the HPSC and forcibly shut it down if they tried to pull a fast one on him. That kid became a hero student out of sheer force of will when the odds were against him, she did not want to be on the receiving end of that kid's will now that the playing field was even out.

Now that the kid could not only fight back but also could potentially gather not only public support but also international support, then, any attempt of playing foul against him would bite them in the ass.

But there is a part of her that believed that maybe the only way to cleanse the filth that was rooted in the HPSC was to get someone like him to take them down. Maybe then from their ashes, something more pure would emerger to actually do what the HPSC was meant to do in the first place...

Izuku reached his home and then he looked at a family photo that was in a drawer in the living room. In that photo, a three-year Izuku was alongside his mom and dad, his relationship with his dad was a little complicated. On one hand, he had been working in America since he was four, and had been almost more than ten years since he interacted with him in a physical way. on the other one..., he did talk with his dad on the phone a lot, and it was not like he wasn't part of his life..., but he was not that attached to his dad that much because of it.

Izuku knew that he cared about him enough to send money and to respond to his telephone calls, and he even sent presents through the mail on his birthday and Christmas, but Izuku would had preferred for him to be there when he needed him over being a distant figure.

"Izuku. Hisashi had called a while ago. he wanted to know how that exam went." inko said.

"I passed. My friends and I made it..., here...look" Izuku said and then he showed his mom his hero license.

"My baby!" Inko said and hugged Izuku. Izuku felt content at the moment with the simple things in life, but he knew that things were going to be more complicated in the future, but he would tried to shelve those thoughts for another time. like for example, why some people and his own mother called his dad by the nickname of "Spike" from time to time. His mom said that was an inside joke from a group of friends that both she and his dad had, and he was not really interested in finding out why. Whatever happens, happens. Izuku thought.

He wanted to rest for the day so he could go back to U.A. as fresh as possible. just because he got his temporal hero license now, that doesn't mean that he was extemp to continue the hero course now.

A Provisional Hero License is a typical ID card containing the holder's profile picture and hero name, allowing them to act without the instruction of a hero whom they were working under for whatever reason while they were still studying in a hero academia, but also that meant that they would have to deal with the consequences of their actions in one way or another if they decided to go solo and things went either good or bad for them.

That additional autonomy was more or less a test in on itself, a test of responsibility to see if they were mature enough to be given that privilege, and they had been cases of those licenses being suspended for improper conduct. But those worries were for his future self, Izuku at the moment wanted to sleep in his bed after a warm meal and a good shower.

Chapter 20

Chapter Text

The Hero Work-Studies..., that was the topic of the day of class that came after they got their provisional licenses. Izuku was still on his own, but he asked Kinoko what her homeroom teacher told her when they were in the cafeteria and she gave a basic explanation that helped Izuku know what to do.

"So..., what hero would you choose to do the hero studies?" Izuku asked to kinoko.

"I don't know..., maybe the puss*cats?" Kinoko said.

"...you are still itching to go on a mushroom hunting there?" Izuku asked in a teasing way.

"Yeah...." Kinoko said a little embarrassed about it.

"It's okay, everyone wants to do what they like even when on the clock..., and mountain rescue would give you the excuse to indulge yourself with mushroom gazing from time to time..., but you should really consider if your love for mushrooms needs to rule in important choice..., and I am a little of a hypocrite while saying this because I made my choice to follow you to whatever hero agency you choose in the end." Izuku said. Kinoko blushed a little when Izuku told her that.

"Oh, you..." Kinoko said.

"You lovebirds should get a room if you going to act like this in front of people...., but on second thought..., you better don't. Something tells me that you two will speedrun your relationship straight in having kids if you two aren't kept under supervision from time to time" Setsuna said in a joking manner, but then Kinoko fired back in a playful way.

"Maybe you are right..., but if that happens, I want for you to be the godmother, Tokage." Those words caught her by surprise.

"What!?"

"What she said. We thought long and hard about it, and we decided that since you in a way helped us to connect with each other as a couple, we wanted to give you an important place in our plans for the future. From maid of honor in our wedding to a godmother to our children, we want to make sure that your role in our relationship is appreciated..." Izuku said.

"Ugh..., I...can't...take...it...!" Setsuna said, clutching one hand on her chest and then acting like she was having a pain in her chest before her head detached itself from her body and descended to the table when they were eating. Her head bounced a little on the table before she reached their position.

"ゆっくりしていってね！！！" Setsuna said. Her face got a little more cartoonish with a relaxed smile as she opened her mouth and her eyes got a little more larger for some reason.

"...Uhh" Kinoko said.

"Calm down, Yukkuri..." Izuku said and then he grabbed her head and used his quirk to move back to her body.

"Ohh..., you got that one..." Setsuna said. Surprised that some got her reference.

"But of course. Touhou Project is eternal..., like Doom and Jojo's Bizzare Adventure." Izuku said.

"And One Piece..." Kinoko added.

"Yeah, that too..." Izuku said and then the group returned to a more serious conversation before returning to their respective responsibilities in U.A.

An hour later. Izuku was busy training in the Ground Omega while dodging Gran Torino attacks in order to see how good he was keeping up the pace while he ran away from an opponent that was not only able to keep up with him but also was able to attack them while he ran away from them. Izuku was able to use his own quirk to mimic Gran Torino's movement and even if he could fly, Gran Torino's words about not getting too confident in the air because he could become an easy target while in mid-air resonated in his head and he stood inside the forest as a cover to make gran torino's rushes to hit him to be less easy to perform. the trees that were in the way covered him enough and even if Gran Torino was able to break through them, the man had to bounce from tree to tree to get a clean shot at him.

"Stop. That is enough for the moment." Gran Torino said. Izuku heard that and then he stopped running away and then he went to meet Gran Torino.

"How was it?" Izuku asked.

"No bad at all..., you are getting a real handle of your quirk now..., and to think that you passed the temporal license exam while relying on the memories of what you did with OFA..." Gran Torino said. He was informed alongside All Might about what Izuku did to OFA and why AFO literally gave up fighting the moment that All Might came to give him the finishing blow. Izuku did explain that when AFO was trying to steal OFA from him. the quirk that AFO stole from him when he was a child and OFA with the fragment of his quirk assimilated into it resonated with each other and prevented AFO from stealing it, but also allowed Izuku to peer into his mind and feelings. he saw the desperation that the man had to reclaim the last remnant of his brother and in the end, even if Izuku explained to him that taking OFA and assimilating it into AFO would kill him, the villain was uncaring about that and just wanted his brother back. that context was nice for the hero to know before Izuku revealed that he gave up willingly OFA to AFO. if he was not informed about the details of what happened, then he would be very upset about the whole ordeal.

Now Gran Torino had to help Izuku to train with his original quirk and Izuku made a quicker progress with his original quirk than what he did with OFA when he met Izuku during the internship week. it was clear that Izuku had an innate understanding of that quirk of his that he had been born with before AFO stoled that he lacked with OFA, or maybe that was that part of control that his quirk had that OFA slowly repaired when it was assimilated when it was a broken quirk factor and now that part was the last vestige of OFA in the world in full effect.

Regardless of what it was, Gran Torino was still helping Izuku even if he didn't had OFA anymore. he had been enjoying his time teaching Izuku and the fact that it was clear that he had still something to do after the conflict with AFO was resolved helped the old hero to at least having something to look forward to the next day. The old hero was not the kind of man who would go down quietly, but he knew that now that the biggest threat of his lifetime had been eliminated and he lived long enough to see that monster fall was, then he would had to content himself with sharing his knowledge with the next generation for as much as he can. Gran Torino didn't knew how much time he had left in him, but he was going to make sure that it was used wisely.

The next day of class, Izuku and the students of both classes of the first year were called to train with the big three by sparing with them.

The weird kid with the dark blue hair was the sparring partner of class 1-A, the teal-haired girl with a bubbly personality sparred with 1-B, and then the one dollar store All Might lookalike that was Mirio Togata was going 1vs 1 against Izuku.

"You are his apprentice..." Izuku said. He remembered that Sir Nighteye mentioned that name when he tried to tell him that he was not worthy of OFA.

"Hmm?" Mirio looked at Izuku confused for a couple of seconds.

"You are Sir Nighteye's choice." Izuku said. That made Mirio realise what he was talking about.

"You..." Mirio looked at Izuku now with a wary glare.

"This is personal now..." Izuku said and then he decided to float in the air, which let Mirio with no real way to fight back against Izuku. Mirio tried to permeate to the ground in order to first gain some cover against Izuku's long range attacks and then to try to get pushed into the air when his quirk was deactivated in order to catch him, but he then was surprised when Izuku teleported him into the air when he was still permeating on the ground.

"It worked..." Izuku said, more surprised over the fact that he was able to do that than the fact that he did it.

"Just chill for a while..." Izuku said and then he descended to the ground while he used his quirk to keep Mirio floating in the air without the ability to move until the sparing match was over.

In the end, both classes were defeated by the students of the Big Three even if they put in an impressive performance despite their lack of experience, but Izuku was the one who won against his opponent in a way that humiliated Mirio Togata so badly that it hurt the blond student's pride.

The students of the first year moved on to the next class while Mirio was still looking at the ground while he felt humiliated at what happened in the sparring match. He did talk with Sir Nighteye after he recovered from that incident that broke his wrists and he said that he tried to talk "sense" on Izuku Midoriya to leave heroism and he retaliated poorly to his words. Sir Nighteye was unable to accept that he was wrong and the moment Izuku got involved in the fight with AFO and saved the day only to be recognized as All Might's apprentice and successor by the world, the man got upset beyond measure. That kid not only took OFA away from Mirio, but also now possessed the accolades that were meant to be from Mirio, the man was angry beyond belief. Sir Nighteye couldn't accept for things to go different from what he had seen before in the past with his quirk. He saw that Mirio was being given those titles and he held that glory, so to see how things had changed was something that he couldn't accept because that would mean that his quirk was not as infallible as he wanted for him to be, and he couldn't also accept that.

It was such a shame that Izuku was not going to willingly get near him now and even if he somehow tried something, Sir Nighteye was admonished by the HPSC when U.A. reported what happened months ago when they met during the internship week and if he had another incident with Izuku, then his career could be compromised. Both Sir Nighteye and Mirio Togata had a grudge against Izuku while Izuku was indifferent to their grudge.

Izuku cared so little about those two that he was focusing now on what Kinoko told him about doing the hero work studies with one hero that was in the top ten rank a couple of years ago.

Izuku told her that if she wanted to go with that choice, then he would follow, so he was going to talk with Nezu later to see if he could help him with that.

"Hah..., who ever thought that we four would go to the same hero for the hero work studies...?" Setsuna said. she was surprised to see that Izuku, Kinoko, and Momo were on the same train that she was in order to go to the location that the Magic Hero: Majestic told them to go. Something big was about to happen in one big city and one hero requested for a lot of heroes to temporarily work there for a reason that unfortunately was something that was confidential at the moment.

"I'm pretty much going where Kinoko goes, so I don't really put much thought into who will come along..., but good to know that we could count on you, Tokage." Izuku said.

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.., but you should at least sound like you have more reasons to go to a hero work studies because Komori chose that hero in case they ask you why you chose them to do a hero work studies, Midoriya." Setsuna said.

"...you have a point, so maybe I should use this hour on the train to figure out an excuse..., or I could just tell them that I am going there out of the love that I feel for my girlfriend and that is final." Izuku said.

"Izuku..." Kinoko said, getting a little embarrassed, but happy at the same time that Izuku was saying that.

"Regardless..., we are going to group up with Asui and Uraraka since we are going to the same agency for the moment." Momo Yaoyorozu said. At this point, Izuku started to interact with them and even talked to them from time to time, but there was still a lot of work to be done before the remains of class 1-A and Izuku were in friendlier terms. Izuku was willing to put his feelings aside when the situation called it and as he did in the temporal hero license exam, he was willing to help them as long as they were on the job, he became a little more distant in U.A. but at least he didn't avoided them as he did in the past.

" I see..." Izuku said, he was trying and having better success and trying to mend his relationship with his ex-classmates, but he had the most trouble with Uraraka.

He did not knew what to think about her because after they talked for a while after the exam and she told him her feelings, he did not knew what should he feel about the whole deal.

She admitted to him that she had a crush on him after the whole entrance exam debacle and unfortunately for her, it took him to get out of her life to realize her feelings about him, but by that time, Izuku was unable to even endure her preseence, and now, he was in a relationship with Kinoko.

Izuku decided to believe that at least she needed to get her feelings out of her chest so she could move forward with her life and telling him all of that was part of that healing process. He wished for her to find happiness and someone who could love her for who she truly was, since their paths would never cross in that regard and he focused on the present.

There was a lot of trepidation and excitement about what they would do in the hero work studies and aside from Iida, who was forced to stay in U.A. since he still was under watch for what he did in Hosu, Izuku and the other students of the first year that decided to participate in the hero work studies were moving to different places on japan to fulfill their duties as heroes in training.

there were some concerns about that particular city asking for a lot of heroes to be there for some reason, and Izuku knew that if those reasons were confidential, then something really bad could have happened, but the only thing that Izuku and those that were going there could do was to go there and then see with their own eyes what was happening there. Izuku just hoped that it was just something minor, but since he was in the hero business, Izuku knew that he was not going to be so lucky if he thought that this was a minor incident.

Chapter 21

Chapter Text

"..." in Ryukyu agency in that particular city. The hero Majestic was conversing with his colleague and fellow hero, Ryukyu. both heroes were busy sharing information about this particular situation while they left their interns from U.A. to interact with each other.

"...so, you two choose Ryukyu" Izuku said while addressing Ochako and Tsuyu.

"Yeah..., we were surprised about the fact that she accepted us..., but hey, she is on the top 10, so this is a chance for us to make a name for ourselves..." Ochako said, she still gazed at Izuku with sandess in her eyes from time to time, it stung a little to see both Izuku and Kinoko together being so happy because a part of her was still jealous about the fact that in a way, Kinoko had what was supposed to be for hers. She found a way into Izuku's heart and became a pillar to support him at his lowest moments and in the end, she fell in love with him later.

That jealousy still burned in Ochako's heart, but she knew now that this was the result of their actions before the Sports Festival, a lot of them were swayed by Kirishima's pleads that tried to say that Bakugo was a better person than he appeared to be, and that combined with the whole training for the Sports Festival did made them to not being there when Izuku could have needed a friendly hand. The videos that appeared did open a massive can of worms that revealed how much of a villain freak Bakugo truly was put a stop to that delusion, she was afraid that if things didn't change, then they would had accepted Kirishima's words and would not care too much about Bakugo antics because while Izuku was kind and heroic, his awkwardness didn't do him any favors with the others and Kirishima was far more personable and popular than him, that would had believed that his reprehensible bullying that the did to Izuku was something different to what it truly was. they had lost Izuku and she had lost the chance to get her now-recognized feelings of love for Izuku to be corresponded by him.

"That is nice..." Kinoko said. She was wary about Ochako and even if she told her that she was not going to try anything to get in the way of her relationship with Izuku, a little caution wasn't unwarranted. A lot of girls came out of the woodwork to try to seduce Izuku to get him to ditch her for someone who was prettier than she was or had things that she could never give to Izuku, and even if she saw time and time again that Izuku told those girls to leave him be in a polite way, that whole song and dance did cause some damage to her confidence, but she knew that Izuku was 100% in her corner and his love for her was too strong to be defeated by those girls.

"This situation is not normal..., there has to be something dangerous in this city to make heroes act like this..." Momo said, she could sense the tension in the agency and she tried to vent her feelings a little.

"Maybe..., but cheer up! we are here to help things to get better" Setsuna said. Izuku then had an idea when he heard Setsuna say Momo to cheer up.

"I do have an idea to pass the time..." Izuku said.

"Huh...?" the girls looked at Izuku confused.

"We are getting to worked up about the situation, we need to relax a little and I think that we can do something to pass the time while not being too lazy." Izuku said.

"Hooh..., do tell." Setsuna said, showing some interest in what Izuku said.

"Well..." Izuku said and then the girls heard what Izuku had in mind.

"I see..." The Magic Hero: Majestic said after he had listened to the reason that he was called to Ryukyu agency to be debriefed about why he and other heroes were called to patrol this city for a while.

In this city, there had been a surge of a new kind of biological weapons that could render people quirkless for a short amount of time at the moment. it was a bullet that had been called the quirk-erasing bullet by Sir Nighteye and now the hero knew the reason about why this amount of secretism was enforced in this operation.

That man was too obsessed with having things under his control to an obsessive level that was almost impossible for any other hero to collaborate with the man unless it was on Sir Nighteye's terms, so to hear that that same man did this massive request did surprise Majestic. The situation was that dire for that man who was so obsessed with having things under control to partially go against his principles to call that massive amount of backup.

The hero walked away from that meeting with a dossier that contained the info that Sir Nighteye had gathered during his investigation and that also contained some data about a villain called Overhaul who was the supposed source of those bullets.

Majestic was a little confused about the fact that he had been told that this information shouldn't be given to those that weren't the main heroes of the agency. In his case, He shouldn't give that important information to his four interns who came from U.A., it was a shame for Sir Nighteye that Majestic was not the kind of person who was going to deny his interns critical and vital information about a dangerous villain just because Sir Nighteye was to obsessed to kept that information under his control. so when he reached the room where those kids were waiting, he saw how Izuku was shuffling a deck of cards before he took one of the cards out of the deck to show it to Momo.

"Is this your card?" Izuku said and then he showed her a card that had printed the 3 of diamonds.

"No." Momo said.

"Okay..., then check one of your right compartments in your utility belt." Izuku said and then Momo did as Izuku told her and she found a card with the 7 of hearts.

"Whoa..., this is the one." Momo said. surprised a little about what had happened.

"Well, I can teleport people around, so teleporting items is not that complicated." Izuku said.

"Yeah..., that makes sense..." Setsuna said. they were so focused on that game that they didn't heard how Majestic and Ryukyu got near them.

"Nice trick kid." the hero said.

"Ohh..., you are back, are you done talking with Ryukyu?" Izuku said in a relaxed way.

"Yes. We already got informed about why we are here, but for the time being, we are going to unpack your belongings here, the heroine Ryukyu had graciously allowed us to stay here for a while during this hero work studies, so you should follow her to your assigned rooms before we call you to perform a patrol in the area. The day is not over yet." Majestic said.

"Yes sir." Izuku and the others said. Majestic was concerned a little about the info that he read and he was trying to find a way to explain all that he read in those files to those kids, but for the time being, he was drawing blanks. he hoped to had the time to find a way to say what he wanted to those kids, but sometimes, time was lacking.

A small girl was running away from her tormentor, that girl's name was Eri and she gave overhaul the slip when he was intimidating two heroes that intercepted her in one alleyway. That blond man with the million number on his chest and the other more depressed guy that had a hood covering his head were too quick to give her back to Overhaul when he told them that he was her father and in a moment Overhaul was distracted, she hit him in the balls, that villain was used to almost killing her daily, so she knew that nothing worse could happen to her should she was captured again.

"Eri!" Overhaul screamed in anger, he did not expect Eri to get so bold, so it appeared that he needed to make his sessions with her more painful to break her spirit for good. he was able to follow Eri to an alleyway and he then found it empty, he then saw that kid who was All Might's apprentice who was hanging with a girl with a red hat with white dots, and then he tried to pull his act as a concerned parent.

"Excuse me..., you two. did you see a small girl with white hair and a horn nearby?." Overhaul said, Izuku and Kinoko turned in his direction and then they interacted with the man.

"No sir..., we did not see a small girl with white hair and a horn in this alleyway." Kinoko said as she looked at the villain like she didn't know about his existance, overhaul thought that he could get away with this for now and keep his charade.

"I see..., she is my adopted daughter and I have a lot of trouble getting her under control..." Overhaul said.

"That's rough, buddy..." Izuku said while sighing at what he heard, Overhaul was a little miffed at that comment, but he had to play it cool.

"it is..., so please, in case you could find her, would keep her company and warn me about it? I would be in the area just in case." Overhaul said.

"Sure, why not?" Izuku said and then Overhaul felt that he had already won.

"Thank you..." Overhaul said and then he tried to walk away, but then he felt how something grew inside his throat and then he fell unconscious in an instant.

"...good job, Shemage." Izuku said to his girlfriend.

"It was nothing, Ardor. Your quirk allowed one of my spores to warp inside his thought, bypassing his mask and then I was able to use my Splitgill Lung Strike to incapacitate him." Kinoko said.

"Creati, Lizardy! We got him!" Izuku said through his communicator and then Setsuna descended from one of the rooftops with her quirk while she held Eri properly and then both she and Eri were on the ground level again.

"Good, Creati called the reinforcements and she said that the police and Majestic are coming here as we speak..." Setsuna said. neither she nor the others expected a small girl who clearly looked abused and malnourished could appear in an alleyway that they were checking on during their patrol and then they saw how Izuku's eyes glowed green for a couple of seconds before he told the girl that they would save her from that villain that hurt her.

Izuku's plan was for Kinoko and him to stall for time until they found an opening to strike, Setsuna was meant to stay on the rooftops with Eri and would move stealthily from rooftop to rooftop in case that was needed to take her away from that villain. Momo was the one who would call for reinforcements and was meant to help Setsuna navigate while she was on the rooftops by being a lookout. but it appeared that Izuku and Kinoko were able to take the villain down on their own..., Setsuna was not as upset to know that her part of the plan was, in the end, unneeded, the plan to capture the villain and save that girl was a success and she was fine with that.

She was amused to see how Majestic and Ryukyu were astonished over the fact that they four were able to capture that villain, that same villain that Majestic told him was dangerous and they reduced him with no trouble.

"You kids are something else..." Majestic said, he did not saw this one coming, but it appears that his warning about that villain did helped the situation in the end..., he just hoped that Sir Nighteye wouldn't throw a fit because his investigation was going to end soon by the looks of it.

Sir Nighteye did in fact have a fit of anger when he heard that Majestic interns captured Overhaul and with them, they threw a wrench in his investigation, he went straight to Ryukyu's agency to scold them for running his investigation, but the moment that he entered the place and saw that Izuku was there, the man suddenly lost a lot of that anger that fueled him to come here.

"Ohhh..., you come here for round 2?" Izuku said in a polite tone of voice that dripped a lot of venom, he also saw how Izuku was now cracking his knuckles almost like he was getting ready to fight him. Sir Nighteye did pester All Might enough to the point that he was told that OFA was no more and that Izuku's quirk was the original one that he had before AFO stoled from him that OFA was able to take away from AFO before disappearing for good. That still made Sir Nighteye think that Izuku still held a part of OFA's power and that he was unworthy of it, but he now was on a tight rope, he could face the end of his career if he tried to start a fight with that kid. So he was forced to walk away with the tail between his legs before he could put an end to his own career.

The public opinion was on Izuku's side, the heroic community in japan was on his side and even he had some support from the international community of heroes for his contributions during that international incident on the I-Island. That amount of support angered the hero because he was unable to understand how the world refused to see things his way, Izuku was a leech, a parasite that took what rightfully belonged to Mirio from his point of view, and instead of being punished for it, he was rewarded with the prestige and adoration that was supposed to be for Mirio, for the one that he chose to be All Might's apprentice and not that brat. all of this was because he was upset that for all his obsession about predestinated fate, Izuku came and shattered his vision and with it, his confidence in his own quirk. He couldn't accept that his quirk's visions weren't perfectly accurate as he had believed all his life that they were, because that meant that his quirk was not as perfect as he thought it was, and that filled him with dread. that was Sir Nigheye's beef with Izuku and that was something that he was unable to stop himself from being upset because he couldn't fathom that someone could defy fate as Izuku did. So he turned tail and run back to his agency and left Izuku alone.

"f*cking jackass..." Izuku said. he then returned back to the agency with a paper bag that contained some groceries alongside some other things and Izuku alongside his friends were trying to help Eri relax, she was still unable to grasp the fact that Overhaul was out of her life for good and she was unable to relax.

"Hey, check this out" Izuku then decided to make a sleight of hand with a deck of cards and Eri was mistified, she never had the chance to see dumb things like that since her mother abandoned her and then Overhaul tortured her when she ended up under his "care"

"Can you do that again...?" Eri asked, a little afraid about taking to Izuku.

"Sure." Izuku said and then he repeated the same trick with his hands so Eri could see it. there was no way for Eri to forget the trauma that she had endured for so long in one single day, but this was the first step on her journey to recover.

Chapter 22

Chapter Text

Sir Nighteye was now preparing a raid on the yakuza secret base and he had one thing clear, he was not going to let Izuku get involved in the main team that would assault the main underground compound. He refused to allow that kid to gain even more fame and for that reason, he had the hero Majestic, the heroine Ryukyu, and their interns on standby outside so they would barely get any recognition, his plan was perfect and in the end, neither Izuku or his friends got involved..., but god had a sense of humor and decided that there was no better way to end Sir Nighteye investigation in a high note by having him, his personal apprentice and that apprentice's best friend to be injured by the only three permanent quirk erasing bullets that Overhaul created before Izuku got Eri out of the way. The other heroes were injured by the temporal quirk erasing variants of those bullets and Izuku and those that were on the outside entered the fray to rescue his comrades whne those villains ran out of bullets.

Sir Nighteye's career as a hero alongside the hopes and dreams of Mirio Togata and Tamaki Amajiki to be heroes were destroyed during that raid. Sir Nighteye had made so little progress with his investigation with his passive methods that Overhaul had time to perfect the formula..., Mirio and Tamaki's decision to return Eri to Overhaul would at this point had allowed Overhaul to create more perfected bullets...if Eri didn't decided to flip the script and hit overhaul in the balls to run away to then reach Izuku and his friends' location who then proceeded to save her from that villain by capturing him and getting him out of the streets for good.

Now the only remaining member of the big three of U.A. was Nejire Hadou who was also moved to the reserve in this operation and was spared from getting shot with one of those bullets because Sir Nughteye felt that it was her fault that Izuku and his friends were in the area when he heard that both majestic and Ryukyu told Nejire to keep an eye on both groups of interns. that irrational decision saved her and forced him to take that last quirk-erasing bullet.

So for now, the hero work studies were at the verge of ending and Eri was allowed to experience what was supposed to be a happy childhood and enjoyed being treated like a person alongside the positive attention that she received. Tsuyu Asui was more capable of dealing with Eri thanks to the fact that she was an older sister and that made Eri to like her..., having green hair like Izuku did also helped in a way.

Eri's situation was too irregular at the moment and for the time being, she would be in U.A. as a ward of the school to keep her safe while they helped her to master her dangerous quirk. eri was a little apprehensive at the idea of being a prisoner again, but Izuku patiently explained what her situation was to dispel any misconception, and after a couple of weeks inside U.A. in which Izuku took advantage of his free schedule to help Eri to get more relaxed inside U.A., Eri was more at ease inside the campus and considering that she was visited by other people like Kinoko and Momo, then she ended getting more confortable in her actual situation.

"What a headache..." Itsuka said, she, alongside her classmates of class 1-B were trying to decide to do something for the cultural festival of U.A. and they had a lot of ideas but no one was able to get on the same page with one idea.

"Yeah..., tell me about it..." Setsuna complained.

"is there a problem?" both girls heard Izuku's voice and they saw that he was there alongside Eri.

"Midoriya! We are fine here..., only a little frustrated about our inability to reach a consensus about what should we do during the cultural festival..." Itsuka said.

"Yeah..., I can see that..., Yaoyorozu and the other students from class 1-A had decided to do a karaoke or something like that." Izuku said. itsuka was surprised when she saw how Eri and Setsuna were talking about a magic trick that she during the hero work studies that she liked.

"Magic trick?" Itsuka asked Setsuna as she watched how Setsuna lamented that she lacked the tools for it.

"Ohh..., sorry Kendo, it just a thing that we did for fun during the hero work studies with the hero Majestic that Midoriya told that we could do to pass the time..., we just played around training to do magic tricks while using our quirks to make them work..., Midoriya is a pro with sleights of hands with a deck of cards and the pulling something out of a tophat..." Setsuna said. She remembered fondly how Izuku decided to use Kinoko's hat to warp an apple that was nearby in order to give it to Eri Izuku how she enjoyed that trick.

"...that sounds nice."

"Yeah, it was..., maybe Midoriya's logic to do that was a little superficial, but the entertainment was top-notch." Setsuna said, remembering with a lot of fondness those moments that happened the past weeks.

"I am kind of glad that I'm exempt from doing something during the cultural festival..., it sounds like a headache and a half..." Izuku said.

"You have no idea..." Itsuka said.

"Hehehe..., sorry." Izuku said Izuku then the topic changed to something more lighthearted and then they parted ways, Eri was happy to hear that Setsuna would drop by later to see her before going back home and the day moved forward.

The day of the cultural festival came and Izuku was inside U.A. alongside his mother and Eri in order to enjoy the festivities while keeping an eye on Eri. this was the first time that she was in a situation like that after her captivity at the hands of that villain and even if she started to get better, some caution was still required.

Izuku and the rest walked through the whole school at a slow pace to let Eri enjoy the events that other classes and Kinoko joined them after two hours had passed.

"Izuku! It's good to see you..., I'm already done with my part of the class event and I decided to find you." Kinoko said.

"Hello there, Komori. It's so good to see you!" Inko said in a cheerful way, after all, that girl was Izuku's girlfriend and she had been a pillar of support for Izuku to truly recover from his bout of temporal mutism that afflicted Izuku after the sports festival and to carry on as a hero.

"I can say the same, Miss Midoriya." Kinoko said in a polite way. she then saw Eri and decided to talk to her.

"Eri. How are you doing? Are you having fun?"

"Yeah..., this is nice..." Eri said while still being a little reserved.

"I'm glad..., Izuku, did you saw something interesting here?" Kinoko asked.

"Aside from you..., not that much..." Izuku said and then Kinoko got a little red on the face, but she was happy nonetheless.

"Come on now, Izuku. save some of your flirting for later when neither Eri nor I are around" Inko said while chuckling a little.

"You are right..." Izuku said while looking a little embarrassed.

"hehe...so..., can I hang out with you three for the moment?" Kinoko asked.

"But of course, Komori, you don't have to ask." Inko said Izuku then Kinoko joined them in their stroll through the cultural festival. After a while, kinoko saw something.

"Hey...look!" Kinoko said. The Midoriya family and her were talking about how things went for her class before Kinoko looked at a certain classroom in which some fair games were being celebrated. they also had some other types of games found in arcades.

"Hohh..., that takes me back to the I-Island" Izuku said.

"Yeah, I remember those stalls that have prizes and how you won those that I wanted with ease..." Kinoko said, she still had those four plushies in her bedroom that Izuku won for her.

"it was fun..., should we try it?" Izuku said, he looked at Eri and she weakly nodded.

"Don't worry Eri, it will be fun." Izuku said Izuku then they entered the classroom. Eri was surprised to see all those weird games, but she had fun trying them all. this was the classroom of one of the support courses of the second year and all those stalls were made by their hands and expertise.

The wack-a-mole was her favorite game that was in that classroom and she got motivated while wacking that thing with a plastic hammer that squealed a little when she hit the head of a mole.That smile that Eri had on her face made Izuku think that the whole event was a success, but the day was not over yet and there was still more time to let Eri enjoy herself.

Sakura Aiba was at U.A. cultural festival with a mission, she needed to talk to Izuku about something that her cousin Manami had told her when she called her the other day in a panicked way. Her cousin was in a hurry when she called her and she was worried about what she told her.

"Sakura..., some weirdos that talk about a group called the MLA are hounding us! I'll talk with you later..." Those were the last words in that call and since then, she decided to see if she could find Izuku to ask for help..., she knew that it was selfish for her to ask that considering that she didn't helped Izuku in the past and as much as she was the one that orchestrated the whole second video, she was an ideas person and not the one that got it done, but her cousin helped her, and she wanted to pay her back. So when she found Izuku and some other people by happenstance, she tried to get near him to talk, but she felt a little overwhelmed out of nowhere.

The Izuku that she remembered was not really here anymore, the one in front of him was far more stronger and confident than the kind and meek boy who was bullied in Aldera almost daily. His stance was more rigid and he exuded an aura of power and confidence that awed her.

Is this the real potential that Izuku had that no one in Aldera was able to grasp? To Sakura, that was what it looked like, she partially remembered how Bakugo's presence overwhelmed the people in Aldera, but she was not afraid of this sensation of power that Izuku had, because she felt that Izuku was not going to hurt her for no reason at all like Bakugo liked to do to those that pissed him off.

She tried to find the courage to talk to him, but she felt weak and pathetic like she was in Aldera, she remembered that she was doing this for her cousin's sake and tired to move to were Izuku was, but then he was there no more.

"..." Sakura was a little dejected and then tried to continue her search, but the moment that she turned her body to go in another direction, she saw that Izuku was there in front of her.

"...!" she looked at his eyes which were glowing for some reason and after a couple of seconds, that glow died down and Izuku's expression softened a little.

"...follow me." Izuku said and she did as he told. Izuku decided to take her to a more discrete place, but not before warning Kinoko and some other people about what he was doing. One of the powers that he got added to his quirk by AFO experiments on it when he had it in his possesion was the power to temporarily read minds and discern the truth of those memories, a neat thing that allowed him to get Eri's situation under control and now he was dealing with an ex-classmate of his from Aldera that had some concerns about her cousin less than legal actions.

Sakura was holding her breath as Izuku guided her to a more discreet place to talk. She then saw how Izuku stopped in his tracks and looked at her in order to talk to her.

"Sakura Aiba..., what do you want?" Izuku said. One of the weaknesses of that mind reading that he could do is that he had a limit to what amount of info could he retain, he needed to practice with that power more, but for now, he had to work with what he had.

"I need...I need your help..." Sakura said, trying to not falter now that the situation was in her favor somehow.

"I see..." Izuku said, he looked at the girl before telling her to explain herself.

"Thank you..., My cousin... had gotten into trouble with a shady group that calls themselves the MLA and it appears that said group is full of villains that are chasing her and her friends out of her location..., she called me the other day and told me that they were armed with support items and were dangerous..." Sakura said. Izuku simply let her say her piece.

"I thought that maybe..., maybe you could help or something..." Sakura said.

"I understand what you are trying to say..., but I am a hero student yet and that means that I lack the autonomy to do what you are trying to say. No matter how popular I am or how I could get away with some actions, I still must follow the law..." Izuku said.

"hh..., I see..." sakura said dejectedly.

"But that does not mean that I can't do anything about it..." Izuku said and then he decided to write a message on his phone to someone who was asking him to pass to him what that girl wanted.

"Huhh!?" Sakura said. she then saw that the principal Nezu appeared and then he decided to talk to her.

"Greetings, young Aiba, I am the principal Nezu, and it appears that you are in a need for a hero for some reason..., so could you please follow me to my office to talk about it? do not be alarmed, you are not in any kind of trouble." the principal said.

"Yes..." Sakura said, she didn't knew if this was a good idea, but if she could explain Nezu the situation then maybe she could find a way to help her cousin who is in trouble by the looks of it. So she followed the principal Nezu while hopping that her actions could help her cousin somehow...

Chapter 23

Chapter Text

Gentle and La Brava were on the run from the agents of the MLA while they were in Mustafu.

La Brava's cousin did told her that Mustafu was a safer place to avoid the MLA agents because U.A. was there and with that hero presence in the area, a bunch of men in black would stick out like a sore thumb around the public.

Both had no choice but to go there and they were surprised over the fact that the heroes in the area were almost ignoring them for some reason, those agents that were hot on their tail were having some trouble keeping up with them and they decided to relax for a couple of seconds to catch their breath.

"Those thugs are persistent..." Gentle said. They had been on the run for a whole week since La Brava had hacked her way into the network of Deika city and had discovered something dangerous.

"Sorry Gentle..., I never expected for this to happen..." La brava said.

"It's okay..., life sometimes loves to throw a wrench in our lives..." Gentle said. he didn't expect to discover a terrorist group inside Japan that was preparing to make a move in order to take over Japan in the foreseeable future. That organization had a lot of connections in important places and they were sure that this information could get them killed unless they found a way to escape or get to a safe place.

"This is the end of the line for you two!" the voice of one of those thugs reached their ears and it was clear that they were surrounded.

"Gentle..!" La Brava said. There was no escape and they could die now, but then both Gentle and La Brava were surprised to see how their bodies were engulfed in green flames out of nowhere and when they blinked, they were in another place completely.

The agents were startled and tried to scatter, but a pink mist filled the whole area and they felt unconscious. the heroine Midnight was watching from one rooftop how the gas generated by her quirk already took effect on those agents.

"It appears that Nezu's plan was successful..." Midnight said. After Sakura Aiba talked to Nezu and revealed the situation with her cousin while also revealing that she was in fact responsible for the second video that revealed the true character of Bakugo to the world, Nezu decided to help Sakura Aiba save her cousin with the intention of get to the bottom of the MLA issue.

The plan consisted in getting both Gentle and La Brava to go to Mustafu in order to keep a watch on them to intervene only when those agents of the MLA tried to attack. Midnight's quirk helped them incapacitate those gunmen while Izuku's quirk warped both Gentle and La Brava to a safer place in order to have Nezu talk to those two to reach a deal.

Nezu felt that Gentle was worthy of a second chance in heroics despite his antics in his videos because he never hurt a civilian and on occasion ruined his own daring escapades from the heroes to get one or two civilians out of the way at his own expense. and as for la brava, her talent as a hacker was impressive enough, she did sneak past U.A. cybersecurity systems without a quirk helping her and considering that it took this long to discover the fact that she was the one that did the whole operation with that second video, then she was smart enough to garner Nezu's interest.

So Nezu had a plan for those two and considering the situation, he expected for those two to collaborate. Nezu had decided already how to deal with Sakura Aiba and her "punishment" was to enter in U.A. general course so they could keep a close eye on her so she couldn't commit any more crimes even if her crime was quite small in comparison to what U.A. had dealt with in the past with the League of Villains and other villains, the fact that she had a healing quirk motivated Nezu's leniency on her final punishment.

"Hello you two, I am principal Nezu..., and we had a lot to talk about by the looks of it." Nezu said as both Gentle and La Brava looked at the principal while being a little scared, from their point of view, they got out of the frying pan to then fell straight into the fire.

"So..., how do you feel?" Kinoko asked Izuku after that whole deal had happened. A couple of days had passed since that rescue and after some investigation that Nezu did with the help of Sakura's cousin about that MLA organization, Nezu had decided to decide that the students of the hero course should reside in U.A. for security reasons. So while Nezu prepared to create a residential area. The hero course students were first moved to Ground Sigma to reside there for a couple of days before their accommodations were prepared. Then they were told that they would reside in those future residential buildings for the remainder of their stay in the hero course.

"I..., don't really know, On one hand, I know now the identity of the person that pulled that second video that in a way had made things go like this.., but on the other hand..., I don't really care too much about the whole issue anymore..." Izuku said.

"I guess that now that you already moved on from those events..., then meeting the one that was part of it doesn't really mean much to you now..." Kinoko said.

"I mean..., Aiba did in a way help me..., but that whole mess did made a number on me..., but I guess that what they said about bitter medicine being the best for you was right in this situation..." Izuku said.

"I guess that is one way to see things..." Kinoko said.

"Yeah..., but something tells me that the MLA is far more dangerous than Nezu wanted to imply..., after all, my mom is here as well for security concerns..." Izuku said.

"Maybe..., but you shouldn't get yourself bent out of shape for things that you don't know yet..." Kinoko said, she gently gripped Izuku's right hand and Izuku then looked at her while smiling a little.

"You are right..., I should focus on the present and don't get worked up for things like that..., whatever the MLA is, I will crush them if things go that way." Izuku said. Kinoko smiled and then both decided to take a stroll in the residential area of Ground Sigma before they decided to call it for a day.

Izuku was still worried about the MLA because he remembered seeing a book talking about them in Aldera's library, but he should focus on what he had in front of him and not chase shadows or connections that were irrelevant from his point of view. Whatever the faculty of Aldera were or weren't in cahoots with that group, that didn't change the situation. The past is in the past and now Izuku needed to look into the present and the future.

In one building in Deika city. A man with a long nose was holding a meeting about how the situation was quickly changing. that man was the leader of the MLA and while he was conducting those meetings, he was Re-Destro the descendant of the original leader of the MLA and the supreme leader at the moment.

"Curious..., what information do we have about that boy?" He asked a blue-skinned woman whose day work was the one of a journalist and in a way followed Izuku's progress after that event at the sports festival and even read a note that he wrote when he was still rendered mute by that trauma.

"Aside from his past as a quirkless individual and his exploits in this year..., then nothing much..., that kid lacked any kind of social life or even online presence that could give us any clue about a potential weakness..." The woman said.

"I see..., so we only have a limited amount of information to work with aside from what we could get from our spies inside U.A." Re-Destro said.

"Yes..., that kid was a really late bloomer who had been focusing on catching up to an average hero student of his age..., and he is pretty much surpassing a lot of promising hero students from the third years with his impressive resume and he barely had one year with his quirk to pull all other feats that put the number 1 hero at the moment to shame..." the woman said. that kid may had the short end of the stick during his childhood, but he hand't wasted any time since he got his quirk and got out of Eraserhead's incompetent care by the looks of it.

"So that kid is a potential obstacle..." Re-Destro said. one man who was a politician decided to talk now.

"It doesn't had to be like that..., we could find a way to turn him to..." That man tried to say, but the woman sighed at his words.

"Don't waste your breath..., that kid had been on the receiving end of how society treats those who aren't blessed by a heroic and flashy quirk..., years of suffering and abuse doesn't go away like that, and since one of his main tormentors had a mind frame aligned to our philosophy, then the moment that we tried a sales pitch, the kid wouldn't hesitate to stop us..., and I am afraid that he can do that..., one does not catch the attention of All Might for no reason..., and even if that kid would never be as strong as All Might was, that kid is far more dangerous that any of us could imagine..." the woman said.

"I see..., so for the sake of the MLA. Izuku Midoriya must die..." Re- Destro said. In a way, from what he knew, Izuku Midoriya was walking not only the path of a hero, but a path to do what he wanted to do regardless of what others told him he was expected to do. The expectations that were attached to his powerful quirk and how he should act within society because of them didn't dictate his way of life, and for as much as the man sneered at that kid's previous quirklessness status, the intellectual part of him could acknowledge that Izuku Midoriya was walking the path of someone that was close to being a liberated person that the MLA wanted for people to be..., so he was sad in a way becasue he would had to kill someone that in a way lived to some of the tenets of the MLA, but for the sake of his legacy and Destro's vision, then it will be done...

Sakura Aiba never expected in her life to be in U.A. at all, she was more realistic in comparison to her peers in Aldera and even if her quirk was useful, she never saw herself as a heroine. Having a healing quirk made her have an aversion to pain and violence, and thanks to Bakugo's actions in Aldera and the way that Aldera's faculty paraded that violent hooligan as a hero in the making, then Sakura was disillusioned with heroism in general. Her greatest ambition in life was to be a simple nurse and now she was in a position in which she was so close yet so far from being a hero or a nurse.

That was her punishment for kickstarting those events that pushed Izuku into being mute and ended up shoving Bakugo into jail, but considering what Nezu told her about what could happen if the truth was revealed, then this deal was her way out while also punishing her by getting her involved in the world of heroics.

The potential of her healing quirk was not going to be ignored anymore and even if she was a simple nurse in the end, the whole studying in U.A. just to be a simple nurse would follow her in any place that she ended up working with. At least there was still a way for her to get what she wanted in life and as much as she felt a little upset at her situation, Sakura was at least able to roll with it and move forward..., if only that blonde kid with an electric quirk that was trying to flirt with her picked up the fact that she was not interested in him would leave her be, then she could be happier with her lot in life, she liked kind and gentle people, and that blond was anything but kind..., she could pick some school bully vibes from him and she didn't wanted anything to do with him, she had her fill with bakugo's antics and didn't wanted to deal with another one of those kinds of people even if they couldn't measure up to Bakugo.

At least now she could be friends with Izuku with no one threatening her in subtle or unsubtle ways and in a way was happy to see that he was happy now with his life.

Izuku did talked to her the other day and forgave her for the whole mess that her video caused him. So she at least was able to not feel too guilty about what happened. The news about his temporal bout of muteness felt like a dagger to her chest and she in a way was blaming herself for the discomfort that she ended up causing him. So she wanted to support him to make amends to him, but aside from what her quirk could do, then Sakura was not really sure about what she could do to help. Oh well, she could figure out something later.

The principal Nezu was now preparing himself for what was going to be an important event in society. All Might's retirement caused some discomfort in society, and even if Izuku's status as his successor and apprentice did alleviate some of that discontent. Some people were still feeling a little too wary about heroic society now that the only pillar that hold it together was gone.

Endeavor was seen as a poor man replacement for the hero who was the symbol of peace and the public unrest was difficult to quell now that the unifying figure and presence that All Might was to the whole world was not there anymore. Society had grown too complacent in those years of peace that were the results of All Might's sweat, tears, and blood, and the rest of the heroes were having trouble picking up the slack.

Nezu didn't knew for how long those years of unrest will persist, but he needed to be at the top of his game now. the heroes had being grown lazy and now that the villains knew that, then it was time to either improve, or let those more prepared to deal with it.

He was at the moment busy working with Manami Aiba to properly deal with all that information and he was snapped from his tranced when he heard his phone and saw that the Madame President sent him a message about needing to talk with him.

Nezu was surprised about this, to say the least. The relationship between the HPSC and U.A. was not good, but Nezu sensed that this was important so he decided to indulge the madame president in her request. he was now making sure to not leave any stone unturned just in case and to see what the HPSC wanted about this operation that U.A. was preparing was important enough for him to let Aiba for a couple of hours alone to deal with the madame president. He was not prepared at all for what she had in store for him...

Chapter 24

Chapter Text

In one plane that was going to Japan from America, there were two particular individuals that went to Japan for a couple of reasons. One of them was an average japanese man with green hair who was wearing a normal business suit and was in a VIP room in that plane because he was in a way an important person.

Hisashi Midoriya worked in the main building of the WHA in the U.S.A. as a representative of the WHA from Japan. The situation in Japan had reached a critical situation by the looks of it. The madame president from the japanese branch of the HPSC had declared that the HPSC from Japan had been compromised and thanks to the principal Nezu's private network, the WHA knew that a terrorist organization had infiltrated multiple sectors of Japan from communications to politics, and it was decided that WHA would interfere in order to restore the order in Japan by sending a little of international help to deal with the issue alongside U.A.

Part of that international help was not sending Hisashi Midoriya back to Japan..., it was to send the number 1 heroine from America to help with the main force of the MLA in an official mission to collaborate with the local heroes to restore order and to flush the terrorist from the HPSC.

So alongside Hisashi Midoriya, the number one heroine from America, Star and Stripe, was going with Japan with him in an undercover way in order to fly under the radar of the spies of the MLA while also protecting Hisashi Midoriya. For that reason, the heroine had to temporary ditch her hair dye and disguise herself as Hisashi's secretary..., but fitting the tall and muscular specimen of a woman that Cathleen Bate was into an average secretary worksuit did caused a little of confusion. A tall and buff woman who reached 1,93cm and her muscular physique made it difficult for her to pull off that disguise as an average secretary with that average get-up that was unable to hide those muscles that Cathleen had spent years working in order to be the best heroine in America.

The heroine took that situation in stride and joked about being the buffest secretary in the world now with that get-up and some of her friends took photos about it to tease her at a later date. Star and Stripe was doing something that was not her style, but she understood that this particular situation required some discretion and she needed to suck it up for the moment, but once she escorted Hisashi to U.A., then she could ditch this disguise and fake identity to do her job.

"Soo.., How do you feel, Mister Midoriya? you are returning home after years and would be able to reunite with your family after so long..." The heroine said. For now, she was under the fake name of Cassie Bait and she was talking with the man that she knew from years. She had a cordial relationship with Hisashi Midoriya and respected his job for the WHA as a representative of Japan, the fact that they had younger relatives studying in U.A. also gave them some to talk about from time to time.

"I feel conflicted..., for one part, I am glad, but I feel like a failure of a parent..., Izuku had been suffering for so long and I was away, unable to do anything about it because my responsibilities with the WHA keep me away from home..." Hisashi said.

"Yeah..., I can see that..., the whole video that leaked the downright abuse that your son endured in Aldera was something that the whole world saw when they tunned in to see the sports festival in U.A. and a lot of people weren't indifferent to it." The heroine said. To see how that hooligan tortured Izuku for years, because what he did to him couldn't be called anything except torture, and still, people told him that he was a hero in the making repulsed her to no end. She followed that villain's trial and it was clear that said boy only admired All Might because he was powerful and from his point of view, heroism was about hurting others. it was a good thing that said villain in the making was out of the streets for good.

"At least now things are going better for him..., Izuku is doing fine in U.A. now and even has a girlfriend. He is making waves in the heroic community around the world and a lot of heroes outside Japan are interested in him..., like you, for example, so I guess that now he is getting compensated for his horrible childhood." Hisashi said.

"Yeah..., that kid had shown that he has a lot of potential..., and if All Might had decided to name him his apprentice and successor..., then that kid has what it takes to be a hero." the heroine said.

"I concur..., but for the time being, we should focus on the first part of our plan." Hisashi said. the heroine nooded at his words Izuku both discussed their first objective. to make sure that Hisashi reached U.A. safely. it was clear to them that the MLA had some interest in Izuku's family now and since Inko was out of their reach, then the moment that Hisashi stepped foot in Japan, the MLA could move to capture him or kill him to hurt Izuku. So once Hisashi was inside U.A. walls, then they could move to part two. Star and Stripe was waiting with holded breath for that part of the plan.

The moment that Hisashi Midoriya and Star and Stripe landed at an airport in Tokyo, some agents of the MLA were already waiting for a chance to capture him. The HPSC was informed that a member of the WHA was going to visit the country, and since there were some members of the board of the HPSC that were in cahoots with the MLA, then that info was given to Re-Destro and a plan to hurt Izuku by getting his dad killed was created.

They did not expect to see that tall and buff brunette who was his secretary to accompany him, and when they reported to Re-destro, they were told that she would be an unfortunate casualty for the goals of the MLA.

So they followed both Hisashi and that secretary in a car and when both stopped in a rest area, they decided to attack. those agents were dressed as villains and were fitted with support gear to get overwhelmed and kill a man that had a weak fire-breathing quirk, but things weren't as easy as they believed that it would be.

That tall and buff secretary was a menace that gave them a beating even when she was wearing high heels and proved that her physique was not for show..., but those terrorists fought against the number one heroine of America and even if she was pulling her punches while being under a fake identity, she was a trained heroine at peak physical performance while those villains were over-reliant on their quirks. Their actions backfired in a way, because that attack made Hisashi warn U.A., and some heroes from U.A. were sent there to escort him and Star and Stripe into U.A., one remaining agent of the MLA who kept his distance warned Re-destro about how things went and he had to consider this mission a failure. he was not going to push his luck now and he had lost some operatives because that secretary was more capable than they expected.

"... I wonder what happened." Izuku said. he was now in the dorms of class 1-B hanging with Kinoko and they were talking about how some teachers left U.A. in a hurry to help some VIP mandatary from the WHA that came to Japan.

"it had to be something serious..., some of the teachers had to quickly leave the classroom to go receive that VIP..., I hope that nothing bad had happened..." Kinoko said.

"i do..., but since that situation is way about or situation for now..., then we can only pray and hope..." Izuku said. he still was thinking about what his mom told him yesterday.

His dad was temporarily returning home, and Izuku was happy in a way, it had been way too long since he had interacted in a physical way with his dad and he looked forward to seeing him again, but he would have to enter U.A. to do that.

His mom was at the moment living with him and Eri where Eri was living during her stay at U.A. and for the time being, His mom had taken on upon herself to help Eri while she was there. the heroes and Hound Dog were helping Eri to get over her issues and Izuku spent a lot of time with her so she wouldn't feel alone while it was morning hours since his free schedule gave him that possibility, but Eri needed someone to take care of her 24/7 and his mother fit that bill.

Now that Izuku thought about it..., his mom didn't have a job since he had use of memory, she was a stay-at-home mom and while she was a nurse in the past, she didn't have the wish to return to the workforce. She always said that the money that Dad sent them was enough for them to live comfortably and neither she nor Izuku were the kind of people interested in expensive luxuries except for hero merchandise, so Izuku never questioned himself about it. but now after growing up and what happened up to this point, Izuku was looking back to his past and tried to see what detail he was missing.

The first detail was that her mom always have that money to spend on the hero merch that he wanted and even if some of them were expensive, she had little trouble buying it for him, the second detail was that his dad sent to him in his birthday expensive merch of American heroes that were collector's items that were not only expensive but also came with a dedicated letter in which the hero addressed to him by his name. In the past, Izuku was more focused in the whole hero merch over the fact that getting those things were something that required either a lot of money or direct contact with heroes. Izuku did now lamented the fact that he wasn't so insistent in the past when he asked where his dad worked because she said something about a worldwide company and Izuku at the age of 5 accepted that and moved on, but hindsight was 20/20 and his child self in those moments lacked his actual level of critical thinking.

Hell, he had a lot of merchandise of the American Nº1 Heroine Star and Stripe in his room in his house that was impossible to buy, and Izuku never in his life questioned how his dad was able to get that multiple times, but soon..., he would get those answers.

"It appears that what the Madam President had told you, Principal Nezu, was correct." Hisashi Midoriya said. the principal Nezu came and now both Hishasi, Star and Stripe, and Nezu were in a private vehicle from U.A. as they were taken into the school.

"Yes..., she had shared a lot of...concerning info that explains a lot about the state of the HPSC in the past and why certain policies were implemented..." Nezu said.

"To think that the MLA is not only still alive, but making discrete moves to get in a position for a revolution is alarming..." Hisashi said.

"I agree..., the madame president was chosen as a replacement of the previous president not because she was the best on the job..., but because those agents of the MLA that already infiltrated the HPSC knew that she was an easier target to control." Nezu said. the precious reunion that he had with the madame president was an informative one and made it clear that as much as he disagreed with some of the HPSC's backwards policies, she was someone who had barely any power to do anything about it unless she wanted for her relatives to pay for her insubordination.

"A lot of people could say that she should had sacrificed the safety of her family for the common good..., but those same people could say that because it's not their families that would pay the prize..., that poor woman was saddled with a job that she didn't want and had a gun aimed at her family unless she kowtowed to the wishes of those agents of the MLA..." Hisashi said.

"I can see that..., but for that reason, you two are here..." Nezu said.

"Yeah..., I'm itching to punch some terrorist in the face..., but before all of that, I want to see my niece, she is in the last year of the support course and I want to see how she is doing..." Star and Stripe said.

"Ohhh..., I never knew that you had a family here in Japan. Miss Bate." Nezu said, surprised to hear that the niece of the Nº1 Heroine from America was studying in U.A.

"I mean..., I do prefer to keep my family life separated from my work, and besides, I'm respecting my little sister's wish to not get her or her family involved in the hero world thanks to my name." Star and Stripe said.

"That is understandable..., I never revealed to Izuku my involvement with the WHA because there was a lot of confidentiality behind my job and because I wanted to keep him away from the focus of those people who could have issues with the WHA that could try to hurt him because of that connection..." Hisashi said.

"And that is why we are friends, Hisashi. we are in the same boat in a way and we can relate with our issues..., and also you are a top-notch pilot from any kind of military plane in the world for some reason..." the heroine said while laughing a little.

"Well..., I had an interesting childhood and I acquired a particular set of skills in the past that you would never believe, after all, I wanted to be part of the JSDF since I was a kid..., but meeting and marrying Inko made me take things easier in life in order to become a family man, and my only regret was to not being there for Izuku when he needed me." Hisashi admitted.

"That is sad..., but maybe you should see if you can improve the situation. maybe this is a blessing in disguise" The heroine said. hisashi looked at her and nodded at her words.

"Maybe, but for the time being, we had a job to do." Hisashi said Izuku then they discussed the situation Izuku how to procced before they reached U.A.

Bibimi Kenranzaki was now working in the gear of one of her most habitual customer right now. She had chosen to help Izuku on a whim and she found herself working in the gear that belonged to All Might's successor and apprentice. that was a tall order, but she knew that this was something that required the best of the best to get it done right, and Bibimi was the best in her class even if people had difficulty understanding her artistic tastes.

Izuku was more open minded an was willing to let her creative inpulses to desing those pieces of gear that he used the most. that grappling hook gun that he called the Gorgeous Beauty and the other device that was an add-on for the Gorgeous Beauty that a standalone support item. she was surprised to see that despite the fact that Izuku was able to create fire constructs of support items, he still decided to use those items that she created for him.

She also created an alternative suit for Izuku to wear that had the same color and pattern as the one that his girlfriend's hero suit had. She did that on a whim, but she appreciated the fact that Izuku was really grateful for that thoughtless gesture of hers.

A sad truth for Bibimi that a lot of students of the support course will have to learn was that their job sometimes was an unthankful task as a lot of heroes took them for granted and few even mention the guy that worked on their suits. For as much as their job made things easier and even sometimes was the only thing that allowed someone to be a hero, that recognition of their efforts was often an afterthought, so she appreciated finding hero students who actually respected their fellow students of the support course and their efforts to help them to be heroes.

She pretty much decided to be a support item developer because she was inspired by her aunty to follow her wishes and even if she was not really hero material, she had an undeniable talent as a developer of gear for heroes. She wanted one day to make a hero suit that her aunty would wear to do her job as a hero in America. She knew that her aunty Cathy was a hero in America but she didn't knew how much of a heroine her aunty was, but soon..., she will find out.

Chapter 25

Chapter Text

"...Who are you?" Eri said. she saw that a tall green-haired man resembling Izuku was at the door of her living accommodations inside U.A.

"You must be Eri..., my wife and Izuku talked a lot about you..." the man said, Eri still was on guard because that man was a stranger to her, but she decided to talk to him since he knew Izuku.

"You know Izuku...?" she said. hisashi was partially informed about her situation and he decided not to push his luck.

"Yes..., I am his father."

"Ohhh..."

"Can I come in? Principal Nezu told me that Inko is here with you almost all the time and I want to see her after all that time that we had been separated..." Hisashi said, he watched how Eri took a step back and still looked wary at him.

"It's okay..., you don't have to let me in, just tell Inko that Hisashi is here and that would be enough. I will wait outside if that makes you more comfortable." Hisashi said and Eri did that. A couple of minutes later, Inko Midoriya came to the door and saw that her husband was there.

"Hisashi..." Inko said and then hugged him. That embrace took a lot of time and both were at least happy to be in contact with each other for so long.

"Sorry for taking so long..., my responsibilities with the WHA kept me there for far longer than I wanted..."

"I know..., I understand..."

"I know you do, dear, but still. I was away from Izuku when he needed me the most..."

"What is done, is done. Despite the lack of physical presence, Izuku still considers you part of the family." Eri saw the interaction between that man and Inko and then she saw how Izuku and Kinoko were getting close to the building.

"Dad...?" Izuku said. he saw how his father turned his back to face him and then he smiled a little.

"Yes, Izuku. I am here now..., for the time being." Hisashi said. Kinoko saw that the reunion was a little tense, but at least Izuku was polite and formal enough to carry himself with dignity.

"I see..., but I want to ask something..."

"Sure, go ahead." Hisashi said.

"What is your occupation...? it has to be hero-related because is not a coincidence that you could always send me super rare and expensive hero merchandise unless you are really rich..., or you had contacts with some heroes..." Izuku said. Hisashi looked at his son and then he weighed his options about how he could reply to his son's question, in the end, he decided to be honest.

"...We are tecnicaly rich, Izuku. my salary as a representative of Japan in the WHA main building of America is really high..., but I also know some important heroes that are willing to part with some rare and out-of-the-catalog merchandise with no real problem for a good cause." Izuku heard his father said that.

"That makes sense..., but why now? why are you here? don't take this in the wrong way..., but the fact that you are here has to mean something..."

"It does..., but I am afraid that I need to keep it for myself for now..., I do trust you my son..., but there is a need for..." Hisashi tired to say, but Izuku did nooded to him and that made him stop.

"I understand..., I know that some things are best to be kept a secret because the situation requires..., maybe when things calm down, you could talk about it when the situation is resolved...." Izuku said.

"Ohh..., that is quite mature for your part." Hisashi said.

"What can I say, Dad? I understand the weight of secrets that could cause national panic and how keeping a lid on those secrets is sometimes the only option available..." Izuku said. Hisashi could sense that Izuku had a couple of secrets of his own and accepted his explanation.

"I see..., and this girl..., is she that girlfriend of yours?" Hisashi asked.

"Yes..., she is Kinoko Komori." Izuku said.

"Nice to meet you...Sir." Kinoko said, a little nervous about the situation.

"Hehe..., don't worry girl, there is no need to be so formal..., you did a lot for Izuku and I thank you for that." Hisashi said. The atmosphere a little more lighter and Kinoko decided to return to the dorms while Izuku talked with his dad in order to catch up with him after so much time being away from each other.

A week had passed since Hisashi and Star and Stripe had reached U.A. and today was the day of the Hero Billboard Chart JP, but this year, the event was not at night like it was usual..., the event was in the middle of the day and a particular line up of heroes were there instead of those of that were in the previous top 10. the hero Slidin' Go saw that a lot of the heroes and civilians that were invited to this event were those that were his comrades of the MLA, from members of the HPSC, to CEOs of companies that were affiliated to Feel Good. Inc, even Trumpeter and Curious were there for some reason.

There was a sense of uncertainty when the members of the MLA that were there realized that the whole room was filled with their comrades and no hero or civilian unaffiliated with the MLA was there. This was too much of a coincidence and even if Trumpeter and Curious tried to play it cool, they had a gut feeling that something was going on.

Then the madame president of the HPSC entered the room and she was accompanied by a green-haired man that Curious and Trumpeter recognized, he was Hisashi Midoriya and it appeared that he had a part to play in this event. The man took the stage and picked up the mic to address the crowd.

"Hello there, My name is Hisashi Midoriya and I am a representative of the WHA." he said, and now Curious and Trumpeter realized that they tried to kill someone whose death could had brought unforeseeable consequences to their cause if the WHA decided to get involved in Japan to investigate the death of one of their employees.

"I came here today to give one small announcement before the main event could start..., so please, bear with me for the moment." Hisashi said, his speech was being recorded and transmitted directly to the TVs in Japan and it was almost time for the main event to start.

"As some of you know. The WHA works closely with the HPSC of every country to help keep order and peace in society..., but Japan had recently been under a lot of trouble that was focused in U.A and was solved in part thanks to the efforts of the now-retired All Might..." Hisashi said.

"So with the retirement of All Might, a lot of villains had been emboldened all around the world now that he had retired..., from low tier villains to criminal organizations, villains that were afraid in the past now are getting bolder..." His words reached all those houses that were watching it and nobody knew what was going to happen next.

"So now..., I will let the madame president the mic before this event could get started for real..." Hisashi said, that last statement of his had a double meaning that flew over the heads of those members of the MLA who were there.

"Thank you, Mister Midoriya..." The madame president said. she took a deep breath and steeled her mind for what was going to happen next. The time to put and end to this nightmare of hers was coming.

Meanwhile in Deika city. Re-Destro was in his office surprised at the fact that the Hero Billboard Chart JP was being done hours earlier than expected.

He heard that speech that Hisashi Midoriya said and he had the same train of thought that Curious and Trumpeter had now that the job of their target was revealed. to have the WHA breathing on their neck or have a group of international heroes at their door was something that Re-Destro wanted to avoid at the moment.

"Well..., before the Hero Billboard Chart JP of this year would begin..., I want to say a couple of things." the madame president said she was ready to give the signal and now was the time to not lose her composure

"As you have seen, a representative of the WHA is attending this particular event today..., the reason is simple..." Those words made Re destro to feel that something big was about to be announced.

"The HPSC of japan has been compromised and today..., the WHA had been called to help the heroes of japan that aren't tainted by it to clean it from the corruption that had plagued it..., and that corruption had a name, and that name is the Meta Liberation Army..." Her words caused Re-Destro to go slackjawed in his office. They knew about them and the WHA knew about their existance.

"From this point forward. I resign from my position as madame president of the HPSC and the representative of the WHA will be the new authority of the heroes of Japan until the situation is resolved." the ex-madame president said and then the sound of a door being opened surprised the members of the MLA that were in the room and a pink gas spread inside the room. it was midnight's quirk and the members of the MLA that were there were captured on live TV. those that resited the gas were defeated by some of the heroes that entered the room with a face mask and incapacitated them on the spot.

Re-destro was now on the verge of activating his quirk and then he saw how Geten and Skeptic entered his office.

"The heroes are surrounding the city and the number one Heroine of America is lending them support!" Skeptic said. the mere mention of the presence of Star and Stripe was enough to make the calm and collected man to get nervous.

"The Hero Billboard Chart JP was a distraction..." Re-Destro said.

"I don't know why you people are getting so worked up..., we go outside and kill them, that is all that we need to do." Geten said, itching for a fight to prove his power.

"We have no choice..., Skeptic! Rally our men and get ready to fight. today we either win, or the MLA falls today!" Re-Destro said. it was clear that this was their last trial to overcome for the MLA to succeed in their goal.

In the outskirts of Deika city, a comitive of heroes from Japan and the lone heroine from America were circling the city alongside the members of the JSDF, in order to put an end to their delusions.

The heroine Star and Stripe was wearing a new hero costume that was really different from the attire she used to wear in America. it was a Blue kimono-sleeved dress, with patterns on the sleeves that made the kimono resemble the American flag with the white stars and the red and white stripes, and a cotton trim around the neck with the golden stars representing all the states of the USA that were accompanied with a pair of navy blue combat boots.

Cathleen Bate made a promise to her niece that one day, she would wear a hero costume made by her if she made it to the support item industry, and she believed that today was a good day to fulfill her promise, sure, Bibimi was still in U.A. and even if she was on the last year of her tenure there, she still needed to make her mark in the industries, but she decided to give her niece a chance and she was impressed by the results.

Bibimi worked overtime to get that hero costume done and in the end, she didn't had the heart to tell her no. Her niece was a soft spot for her and was confident in her chances to pull this one off with the help of the heroes of Japan. she had the permission of the WHA to intervene at her fullest and she was going to at least show some restrain for the sake of her fellow Japanese heroes as long as they could handle it.

It was proper for heroes of other countries who worked in a foreign land in a difficult case to not out-stage the local heroes too much in order to not foster any kind of bad blood between countries. After all, the WHA was created in order to oversee the heroes around the world and to instill a sense of jolly cooperation between heroes from all around the world.

So she wouldn't take too much of the spotlight and leave the new number one of Japan to make a name for himself in the international hero community unless the situation required her to get serious. this second stage of the plan to deal with the MLA was a multiple parts plan and while Hisashi Midoriya and the ex-madame president of the HPSC got their part done, now it was up to her and those heroes to get the main nest of those villains purged. the last part was for the other heroes that weren't part of this strike force and the hero students with a temporal hero license to go on the hunt for the supporters of the MLA that weren't in Deika city to root out their influence from Japan for good.

The time for getting this show on the road was at hand, and Star and Stripe was ready to rumble. Today was the day in which heroics would persevere against villains and terrorists or would fail. The stakes were high and if this operation was a success, then those groups that were rising from the shadows after All Might's retirement would find out that the hero community was not as helpless as they believed that it was now that All Might was out of the picture. Star and Stripe admired All MIght and she felt that the only way that she could honor her idol now was to make sure that those villains were reminded that their vile actions were not going to be tolerated. the heroes were here to stay whether they liked it or not.

Chapter 26

Chapter Text

While Star and Stripe was helping the heroes of Japan with the main force of the MLA in Japan, the other heroes that weren't there to lend support to that fight were all around Japan in order to detain and capture the civilians that had ties with that terrorist group. Those heroes requested the help of some students of the hero schools around Japan in order to act as sidekicks or backup and that meant that Izuku and the others were just back on the streets for the day in order to lend support to the heroes for that day.

Even if those people were not in Deika city, some precautions were taken to ensure that the heroes that were taking them out were not overwhelmed in case some of those civilians decided to fight back.

Izuku was in Tokyo alongside the hero Majestic and his friends in order to quell the unrest that some of those civilians caused when they panicked and decided to not only destroy public property to stall the heroes but also to take hostages to deter the heroes from capturing them.

In Izuku's case, he used his quirk to teleport the hostages away to safety first before the heroes moved to capture those civilians. those civilians were still dangerous and the amount of them that were spread around the country made that this whole operation would at least take the whole day to get it done. This was a boring affair for a lot of students from other hero schools, but Izuku appreciated being on the sidelines from time to time. He had been in the middle of some important events in situations in which he had no say about it and a break like this was nice.

As much as he was All Might's successor and a lot of people had a lot of hopes put on him, he was still in the first year of the hero course and and he still had a lot of time before being a hero for real. he wanted to avoid burning himself before he even made it to graduation, so he appreciated this..., even if his father was the one who decided to sideline him in this particular operation. he would keep his complaints about his decision for a later date, now the job came first and Izuku would not rest until the terrorist sympathizers were captured.

New Order..., that was the quirk that the number one heroine of America had since she was a child, and after rigorous training, she was able to reach a level that put her closer to what All Might was in his prime... in one day that All Might decide to take it easy while doing hero work without worrying about a time limit or severe injuries. Star and Stripe was capable of superhuman physical performance thanks to one of the rules that she set for herself with her quirk that she kept active all the time and that made her an unstoppable force of nature that was unimpeded by the soldiers of the MLA that were trying to delay her, but her role was to help Endeavor to and the others to win unless the situation became that dire.

So when she saw a man with a parka using a powerful ice quirk to try to stop the Japanese heroes while he was in the air, she decided to lend a hand by delivering a punch to the air that was altered by one rule that she made on the spot to punch that villain out of the skies while she was away while knocking the lights out of the villain to them had him fall slowly to the ground so he wouldn't die by the fall. the Two remaining members of the High command of the MLA were now facing an unsurmountable challenge that let them realized that even if they were able to take down Endeavor and the other heroes, they still would have to face Star and Stripe next and she had shown that she was willing to intervene to defeat them if the situation stopped being on the heroes favor.

To Re-Destro, the realization that they were fighting a losing battle was what made him realize that he had shamed his legacy and that the MLA died with him after today. All the preparations that were done by those who came before him had been rendered useless and now it was time for him to face his defeat with as much dignity as possible. the MLA went down not with a bang, but with a whimper. the damage that they had caused to the pillars of the country when they tried to corrode them so they could corrupt them to their favor was the most damage that the MLA had caused under his command and even that could heal faster now that the WHA was involved in the operation to snuffing them out. Re-Destro hoped that his ancestor would forgive him for his failure.

The day after the subjugation of the MLA came and it was not all sunshine and rainbows. the roots of the MLA reach far and wide and now that it was forcibly torn away, there was a lot of work to be done in order to heal.

The most important change in the design was that Hisashi Midoriya was now the president of the HPSC in a temporal manner until the situation was resolved. the situation for Hisashi got a little more complicated now since he still was the representative of the WHA in Japan and for the time being, he couldn't do his two jobs at the same time, but then he remembered what Star and Stipe told him and he then decided to take a decision about his future now.

That decision still required some paperwork and time, but he decided that this was for the best. Hisashi had put his responsibilities with the WHA over his family for far too long and now that he saw a chance, he decided to take it. But the first thing was to make sure the program that the WHA wanted to implement in the past that whose implementing had been delayed by those agents of the MLA who infiltrated the HPSC.

The initiative of having hero students from other countries perform their hero work studies in any country of the world if they wanted was something that had been recently approved by the WHA and had been implemented two years ago in the rest of the world except Japan, so now it was to Hisashi to get the branch of the HPSC from japan up to date and there was no better way to give a better start to this initiative than to give Star and Stripe the chance to get one thing that she joked around when they were on the plane. But it was up to Izuku to allow the heroine to get what she wanted.

As for rhe students of U.A after that day. They were back to their routine and while a lot of people were talking about the fact that Star and Stripe wore a hero costume designed by a student of the third year, some others were talking about the new temporal president of the HPSC.

"So..., your dad now is the new president of the HPSC..., Midoriya" Itsuka said.

"Well..., I am still coming to terms with the fact that he worked for the WHA for years..., so for the time being, I am not caring too much about that part..., for all I know, he would return to America in a couple of months." Izuku said. he was not sure about the fact taht his dad was back in his life and one part of him was expecting for him to return to America. He at least knew the truth, so at least he knew that he was doing important things that prevented him from being at his side all those years in the past.

"Ohh..." Setsuna said.

"One of the things that people used to say to me in order to bully me was that my dad ran away because I was a disappointment..., those words being repeated to me during the years hurt, and even if I now know the truth about why he was away, that pain is not going away that easily..." Izuku said he then looked at his friends and realized that he said something that soured the mood.

"Sorry..., but I am not expecting for my dad to stay back with us until the situation changed for real.., the presidency of the HPSC is a temporal thing." Izuku admited.

"yeah..., that sucks a little..." Setsuna replied.

"it does, but that is my lot in life..., I should focus on the present and not on the past, so I will try to enjoy whatever time my dad would be in Japan before parting ways again..." Izuku said. the topic changed to the fact that in two weeks, Star and Stripe would return to America and some people wanted to train with her for a while. Some even commented on the fact that her niece had been a student in U.A. for so long and nobody knew about it. Izuku was told by his father that the reason for said secretism was because Star and Stripe's younger sister, Alexandra Bate, didn't want her daughter, who was born from a marriage with a Japanese man who had the Kenranzaki family name, to be targeted by those that wanted to hurt the heroine.

That kind of desire to keep the relatives safe was a little rare in this society, but since Star and Stripe was the number one heroine from America and she had a lot of enemies, the idea of keeping her family away from the public was understandable. Izuku just hoped that Bibimi had the fortune of finding a place that appreciated her talents and not because her connection with Star and Stripe.

"So..., how was the job today, honey?" inko said to her husband. now that the MLA had been dealt with, Inko was able to return to her home, and since Izuku decided to stay in U.A. for now to keep Eri company. Then only Hisashi and Inko were back at home.

"Well..., there was a lot of work that had been left undone by the previous individuals that were part of the directive of the HPSC that weren't the madame president and I had to try my best to get some job done..., and considering how some of those individuals were embezzling funds to fund the MLA by taking shady deals with companies that were affiliated to the MLA, then it was obvious way there was a lack of workers there..." Hisashi complained.

"That sounds rough..."

"it is sweetheart..., you can't even imagine how bad it is." Hisashi said.

"But you did something..., that is better that what those that were there before you did at all..."

"Hehe..., not belonging to a terrorist group is a good headstart, but now I am trying to implement something that was approved two years ago, but for some reason, Japan never got to it..." Hisashi said.

"And that is...?"

"An international initiative to have hero students from all around the world to allow them to do their hero work studies in other countries if they wanted to..., Japan never got to prepare the groundwork to allow that and now is up to me to get it done..."

"That sounds impressive..." Inko said.

"it is..., but I need to talk to Izuku before getting this done." Hisashi said.

"And why do you need to talk to him?" Inko asked, a little confused about what Hisashi said.

"You see..." Hisashi decided to explain to his wife his plan about getting that initiative started with a bang. Inko listened to him and was amazed in a way, but in the end, that was to Izuku to decide if he wanted to participate in his dad's plan.

A couple of days had passed since Hisashi revealed his plan to Inko and Izuku was now in Nezu's office because his father wanted to talk with him about something. Izuku decided to see what his father wanted and he was surprised to see that he was not alone there. His dad, All Might in his emaciated form, and Star and Stripe were there as well.

"So..., I have to think that this meeting is important because there is no way in hell that you people are here for a surprise birthday party." Izuku said.

"No..., there is something that I want to tell you, and that petition is related to Star and Stripe." Hisashi said. the mention of a birthday party did saddened him in a way now that he remembered how many of those parties he missed because he was working in America.

"Okay.., I will listen to it." Izuku said and then he listened to what his father wanted.

"So... you want me to go to America to do a hero work studies to give some international publicity to an international initiative that now is implemented in Japan, two years after was implemented in the rest of the world? Did I get that right?" Izuku said.

"Yes..., but as I said, is your choice. This will be done anyway, but I am asking you if you want to be the first to take that program from Japan." Hisashi said.

"...Would I be the only one that would go this time? what about the others?" Izuku asked. the mere fact that he asked about the other students' chances to participate in this program was not ignored.

"For the moment yes, but if you want, we could..." Hisashi tried to say, but Izuku cut him off.

"Fine. I will go, but only if you offer this chance to at least some of the students in the first year of the hero course..., I am sure that only one person taking advantage of this opportunity is not fair in a way..." Izuku said.

"I see..., so that is your only condition...?" Hisashi asked.

"Yeah, I mean.., I can't ask for an autograph of star and stripe thanks to all those packages that came with limited merchandise that you sent me from America that had a letter or two with her autograph on it..., but I think that you people can give me something that I could want, considering the events that happened in the previous week..." Izuku said in a way that confused them.

"And what is what you want?" The heroine asked, intrigued about what Izuku wanted.

"Well...you see..." Izuku said, the room listened to that new condition that Izuku decided needed to be fulfilled for him to collaborate and the heroine even chuckled at that request. his request was more or less in line with what the heroine thought when she decided to wear that hero suit designed by her niece.

"I like it..., I will see what I can do..." The heroine said, Star and Stripe was on board with that petition of Izuku of upsetting a little the heroic merchandise market, and while a lot of people on the marketing side of her agency in America were already planning to turn that hero suit into merchandise of her brand, going from cosplay to even hero gacha games that had her in it as a playable character in which they were going to add that costume as a costume for her character in those games. that silly idea of Izuku was fun for the heroine and was willing to do it.

So after reaching an agreement Izuku returned to his responsibilities in U.A. while he waited for the week to end. At the end of the week, Izuku and up to ten other students of both hero courses, including his girlfriend, were now getting ready to take a plane to America to do a month of hero work studies under the watch of Star and Stripe in order to allow Japan to show to the world that now that the MLA was flushed out from the HPSC, the organization was starting to recover.

The fact that he was in a way retracing All Might's steps as a hero at the beginning of his career even if Izuku was trying to make his own way in life was not lost to him, but he was not that upset about the whole deal. But now if only he could knew why his dad told him that he would go to America in the last week of that hero work studies, then all would be perfect...

Chapter 27

Chapter Text

The first days in America were a little complicated for Izuku and his classmates, the change in the time zone messed a little with their sleeping schedule for a couple of days before they were used to the new time zone. at least that was easier to deal with than the language barrier which was a little complicated for some of them to deal with. Izuku was glad that Pony Tsunotori decided to come because she was the only one in the group who was fluent in English, but since she came from America to japan to study in U.A. and her problem in japan was that she had a poor understanding of Japanese, then now Pony was in playing with the home advantage while the rest was struggling a little...or that was what Izuku wanted to belive because Star and Stripe decided to use her quirk in a creative way to allow Izuku and the others to become proficient in the English language to the level of a native speaker in one single class.

New Order couldn't force them all to suddenly speak and read English like it was their first language, but she set a rule for each of them while they were being taught English in their agency before being allowed to go to the streets with her in one single intense class in which they were only allowed to interact with each other in English, and that rule was to enhance their learning capability and retention of that knowledge to the point that they got years worth of English studies crammed in their heads with no problem just like that in one single day.

Izuku felt a little bad for Present Mic now, because to see how one quirk invalidated his job was something difficult to belive unless you see it in first person. Star and Stripe told them that this was something that she would only do in a special situation and then they were informed about their duties as sidekicks of the number one heroine of America. There was a lot of work to be done by the looks of it and Izuku knew that this was not going to be easy..., but since when things in his life were easy?

The American culture about quirk usage was different from what Izuku was used to see in japan, people were allowed to use their quirks with no problem within a reasonable mindframe, and aside from the villains and low-level criminals, the average American civilian was not going wild with their quirks like a lot of people in japan would believe they would do with that lax regulation.

As Star and Stripe said, that lax regulation came because it was inherited from the spirit of the American Second Amendment which was the right to bear arms. When the situation in the world stabilized when quirks became a more mainstream thing, a lot of countries tried to regulate it as best they could, in America's case, a lot of people ended up drawing the parallel between a quirk and a firearm, and after a lot of debate that even continued to this day, the second amendment was modified to take the part of bear arms away and to substitute with to use a quirk. that change did force the American education system to instill in the younger generations something that was known in a colloquial way in America as "The Uncle's Ben Advice". That name came because the inspiration from those teachings came from an American comic book whose main hero was Spider-Man and his uncle told to the hero that “with great power comes great responsibility.” That translated into telling the kids that their quirks came with a responsibility to know how to use them properly and to never use their quirks to harm others. The results of those teachings were not that bad all things considered, but there was always a bad apple or two that wanted to be a villain or a dick because they believed that the power of their quirk meant that they were better than the rest, but those kinds of people were everywhere.

Like for example, two hooligans were trashing a store because one of those thugs' credit cards bounced when he was going to pay for his beer and decided to rob the place to get his booze instead of doing something more sensible.

Izuku and his friends surrounded the place and while Izuku entered the store to drag those villains out, the others were waiting on the outside to flank them the moment that they followed Izuku out to the streets. needless to say, those thugs realized a little too late that they had attracted the attention of Star and Stripe and those kids that came from Japan to do their hero work studies in America and they became their first arrest as American sidekicks.

Izuku noted how the civilians acted a little differently from what he was used to in Japan. Sure, some of them stay and watch from a safe distance, but those that were caught in a situation didn't act like headless chickens a lot of the time, they found a way to get out of the way, and on occasion, a civilian was the one that incapacitated the villain instead of the hero. that surprised them and Star and Stripe explained to them that it was not vigilantism to use your quirk to save your life from a villain attack and that at some level, it was legal for a civilian to fight back against a villain to save their own lives in needed as long as it was done proportionally and they never killed or severely maimed the villain while defending themselves. The way quirks interacted with the culture of a country was something that Izuku saw during his stay in America and made him curious about how other countries dealt with that issue.

At the end of that first week, Star and Stripe decided to show Izuku and his classmates a fraction of her private collection of American motorcycles that she allowed an automobilist museum in America to expose for educational purposes.

Ituska was the one that had the most fun with it, as she was the one that liked motorcycles the most of all the people that Izuku knew and she was beaming with joy at the mere fact that she was there with them enjoying one of the most important days of her life.

"Kendo is having fun..." Yui said.

"Everyone has their likes and dislikes..., so I see nothing wrong with her having fun right now..., not every day one gets to see part of a private collection of a hero of a thing that you like the most." Izuku said.

"You are right..., but she is too into it..." Kinoko said.

"So what if she is having the time of her life? I know that she is the "big sis" of your class, Kinoko, but she is human like the rest of us and she deserves to have the time to enjoy her hobbies like the rest of the world." Izuku said.

"Yeah..., he has a point." Setsuna said.

"Besides..., if we were in a museum of things that any of you people liked, then could any of you tell me that any of you wouldn't be overjoyed?" Izuku said.

"..." Nobody was able to respond to Izuku because he was right in a way.

"So we should enjoy ourselves and let others have their fun as long as they don't get in the way, Kendo is just talking a little with Star and Stripe about those bikes in a passionate way, is not like she is doing anything bad." Izuku said, in the end, they decided to enjoy themselves while they were there. So while the others were roaming around the museum, Izuku and Kinoko were near the gift shop located near the exit of the Museum.

"Hey look..., that newspaper talks about an incident in Europe." Kinoko said, they were moving around the Museum. Then, Kinoko pointed at that newspaper that was talking about an explosion in a mountain area in Otheon that had multiple casualties.

"Ohh..., let me take a look." Izuku said and then he read it.

The story talked about how one mansion in the mountains near Ohteon suddenly exploded out of nowhere and how there were traces of a dangerous gas that made people quirks to go crazy to the point of causing permanent damage to the person's quirk and by what the police and some heroes were able to recover, it appeared that said gas was a biochemical weapon that Humarise was creating in that mansion's underground lab.

By what the news was saying, a leak of that gas caused by one of the scientists kidnaped there caused a villain called Flect Turn suddenly had his quirk go wild to the point that it started to violently reflect the air around himself, and that created brutal gusts of wind that destroyed everything around him and by the time that his quirk was turned off of the strain caused to his body of that constan quirk usage, the mansion and part of the adjacent terrain was obliterated and he died out of burnout.

"..." Izuku and Kinoko were stunned into silence after reading that news.

"We should go elsewhere..." Kinoko said.

"Okay..." Izuku said and both decided to distract themselves after reading that news, but the name of Humarise was still in their heads after reading how that branch of Humarise was destroyed by one of their creations. The only name given about the scientist that caused that leakage in that underground lab was Eddie Soul.

The beginning of their second week was marked by the fact that Izuku and his friends were moved to a hero agency that belonged to Star and Stripe that was located in Pennsylvania. They were told that they were going to help the heroes of the area to deal with the last remaining branch of Humarise in the world that was still active and they were given some gas masks to protect them from a possible attack of that biological weapon that the heroes were still not sure at all if still existed in any capacity.

They were not going to enter the fray because they were still young enough, but they would help to secure the perimeter and to make sure that the villains did not abandoned the area.

Izuku and Kinoko noted the fact that the news that they read the other day about that Humarise group was almost a sign of what they were going to deal with the next week. even if that operation would at least take one day to get it done, they were going to stay in the area for a week just in case.

Izuku and the Japanese students watched how the American heroes dealt with the last terrorist branch of Humarise in the world. the other countries had it easier while dealing with Humarise in their countries while the American branch of Humarise was more prepared to run away at a moment's notice because they had multiple bases around the country and in some of those bases, they found a couple of containers full of that gas. At this point, this was the last base of Humarise that the terrorists had left and the American heroes were not going to risk it, and even with all those precautions taken, one terrorist decided to turn himself into a suicide bomber and ran to were the heroes were located in order to cause as much destruction possible while he spread the gas around.

Izuku decided to intervene and used his quirk to create a massive fireball that impacted on that terrorist and burned all his gear to cinders. the villain ended up naked on the street and was incapacitated because he was unable to defend himself fully while he was naked on the street. The physical injuries that he received were complemented by the emotional ones when he was rendered naked in front of the heroes.

"it was that or having that lunatic with that deadly gas reaching innocent people." That was Izuku's comment about the situation. The whole striping a villain naked was considered a cruel and unusual punishment..., but considering the situation, Izuku's actions were ignored in a way. With their last gamble negated, the terrorists of Humarise were detained and now the threat of that death cult was done for good.

"Aww..." Kinoko said. Izuku and Kinoko were patrolling the streets of Kennett Square alongside a hero of the area at Star and Stripe's request. She saw a lot of posters on some walls about an annual Mushroom Festival that was celebrated on the first weekend after Labor Day in America.

"Is something wrong, Kinoko?" Izuku said, he heard the sandess in her voice and he felt concerned.

"Ohhh..., it's okay..., I just saw that... poster" Kinoko said and then she pointed out at one of those posters on a wall nearby that talked about that Mushroom Festival.

"I see..., we are definitely a couple of months after that festival was celebrated this year..." Izuku said. He understood why Kinoko was sad now.

"..."

"Should we try to come here next year on the proper date?" Izuku asked.

"Huhh!?" Kinoko was surprised to hear that.

"There must be a way for us to get there the next year, and if you want it, then I could see if I can get a way for both of us to attend here next year in some capacity, even if it is as sidekicks of a hero on the area..., if that is what you want." Izuku said.

"I see..., it would be nice..., but what about you? That would hurt your chances to..." Kinoko tried to say, but Izuku simply shook his head.

"Don't worry about it..., I am doing this because I want to be happy, and seeing you happy is the easiest way for me to be happy..., I mean, I can do other things to be happy, but I enjoy too much spending time with you." Izuku said, Kinoko was still a little unsure about what Izuku was saying, but then Izuku decided to gently caress her right cheek and decided to say one last thing.

"Besides, if the issue is about how you can make it up to me..., you have more than half a year to figure out something..." Izuku said and just kissed her on her right cheek.

"..." Kinoko got a little flustered about it but was happy about this.

"Hehe..., but that talk will have to wait, we are still on the clock and we should return to our patrol... together." Izuku said and then he extended his right hand.

"Yes..., together." Kinoko said and then she held Izuku's hand as they continued with their patrol in the area of Kennett Square.

Kinoko's mind returned to the day when she met Izuku in the forest and she was surprised to see how their relationship went from that rocky start to their actual relationship. She would had never believed that things would happen this way in the past, but she was happy about how things were now. at least now the situation had calmed down after those first months in U.A. and now things were looking better than ever.

The future was unknown unless you had a quirk that allowed you to see the future, but she hoped for things to remain as bright as they were now.

Chapter 28

Chapter Text

The third week that Izuku and his friends spent in America working as sidekicks for the heroine Star and Stripe was definitely the most normal one in comparison to the previous weeks. the cultural shock was now more or less assimilated. After two weeks of working there, Izuku and the others were more or less used to the American society's way of dealing with issues related to quirks that were too different from how they were dealt with in Japan.

if the way that quirk usage was regulated in America was more relaxed than it was in Japan and said relaxation came because they tackled in a way that the kids were educated to understand that their quirks came with a responsibility to prevent people like Bakugo from existing there with an impressive amount of success. The next thing that surprised them was the issue of quirk discrimination.

To discriminate against another individual because they were different from you was something that not even years after the racial tensions that existed in America during the pre-quirk era were put to rest were able to disappear for good. America was far more tolerant of people with "villainous" or mutant quirks than Japan was but there was still some people that discriminated others for petty reasons.

Maybe it was because the American people learned their lesson about how discrimination was a pointless endeavor or maybe it was because now that society started to get superpower and people turned to comic books to get inspiration or life lessons to apply to their reality made the comics of the X-Men a cautionary tale in a way about how discriminating people with superpowers could push them into becoming embittered villains to find a sense of fulfillment in their lives after being rejected by society did made people to not push away people who had"villainous" or quirks that made a person to not look human.

Star and Stripe told them that in America, the Creature Rejection Clan was just a group of a couple of idiots that got themselves in trouble all the time. She also told them that there was a group with similar initials that was more popular in America and that said group was created to mock them.

The Creature Reproduction Clan, that group was created because one man one day in the days that the CRC had some influence decided that when one member of the CRC said to him "f*ck those mutants!" when he was attacking a mutant woman on the street, that man decided to punch that cultist in the face and decided to have a relationship with that mutant woman and create a family out to spite them. One thing led to another and in the end, the amount of effort that the man and other like-minded individuals put into mocking and humiliating the CRC worked to the point that the Creature Reproduction Clan had even merchandise that was sellable with no impediment by the forces of law. From pink-colored versions of those cultist units to mock them to magnets for freezers that had slogans like "f*ck those mutants!...But seriously, f*ck one". it was clear that their attempts to mock and ridicule them in America was one of those things that made the original CRC lose a lot of popularity and influence in the country. The popular CRC in America today was an organization that worked more like a dating service for people who wanted to date those with mutant quirks or individuals with mutant quirks who searched for potential romantic partners who wouldn't judge them for their quirks or appearances.

Izuku was surprised in a way about that sotry, but he cound deny that at least people with mutant and "villainous" quirks in America had it better than in Japan. Hell, it was easy to find people with "villainous" quirks being law-abiding citizens or even heroes that one could see them in Japan. Who could even thought that if you treated people with those kinds of quirks as normal people instead of profiling them for their quirk and told them since they were kids they were villains in the making, then they wouldn't turn into villains and instead live their lives as normal people?.

"..." Izuku was now in the main agency of Star and Stripe, lost in his thoughts all alone. He remembered that his dad told him that he was coming to America in the last week of the month to deal with some issues related to the WHA as he told him before he took that plane to America.

The question about what was that issue floated in his mind and Izuku didn't know if it was to tell that whatever issues that were in Japan that required him to be there were fixed and that he was going to return to America now or something similar.

Izuku was used to seeing his dad on the other side of a video phone call and interacting with him in person now was a little weird for him. He was so used to his dad barely having a say in his life and since he returned, he felt that he was having a lot of influence in his life that he wanted to admit.

Izuku didn't knew if he should be glad about the fact that his dad was now a presence in his life or to feel frustrated about the fact that he was starting to decide things in his life. Maybe this was the result of not really having his dad around in a physical presence since he was a kid. now that he was there, Izuku was unsure about how he should take it, the fact that Izuku was unsure about if he would return to America or stay with them made the situation a little unstable from his point of view.

"Midoriya...?" The voice of one of his friends caught his attention. it was Ochako Uraraka, the first person who treated him as a friend..., and one who was hurt by how he dealt with the debacle of the Sports Festival.

"Is something wrong, Uraraka?" Izuku asked. Uraraka was one of the students of class 1-A who came with him to America. The others from class 1-A were Tsuyu Asui, Momo Yaoyorozu, and Mezo Shoji, the rest were from class 1-B, and aside from Kinoko, Setsuna, Itsuka, and Yui, Pony Tsunotori and Reiko Yanagi were those that came from that class that Izuku didn't interact much in comparison to Kinoko and the others.

"No!... you looked distracted for a long time and I wanted to see if something was wrong..." She asked.

"Ohh..., don't worry. Is just some family issues..., nothing important." Izuku said and then he decided to go to his room, but Ochako was not done yet.

"Midoriya, you could talk about it if you want..." Ochako said. Their friendship was still a little on the cold side even if Izuku was now on speaking terms with the class and chatted with them on occasion during lunchtime or when they interacted on the weekends.

"No offense to you, Uraraka, but my problems are something that would need someone more properly equipped to deal with that a friend..., my feelings on the subject of my dad and how his presence is frustrating me a little is something that is out of the dept of a lot of people..." Izuku said, he looked at Ochako and saw that she was still trying to reach to him to be close to him.

"But still..., maybe if you..."

"No..., I appreciate your concern, but I prefer to deal with this on my own..., sorry." Izuku said. He then moved away and left Ochako behind. The memories of one of their conversations before coming to America in which she asked him if she had tried to reach him at his lowest and tried to help him, then their friendship wouldn't had deteriorated that much still wandered in his mind.

From what she told him, a combination of not being allowed to reach him because they would be expelled after Eraserhead panicked after Mineta and Kaminari's antics caused and scandal in U.A. alongisde with his own emotional state in those moments made her unable to support him. That question of hers about if she had reached him and helped him at his lowest moments would had meant that she would be now in Kinoko's position as his girlfriend gave Izuku something to think about.

Kinoko and Ochako's personalities were different, and in a way, what made him get near Kinoko in those moments was the fact that there was a common ground between Kinoko and him that gave him a sense of security when they interacted. Kinoko was shy and a little timid, but when the topic was something that she liked, then she became really passionate and there was a joy in her voice that reminded him about how he used to get in the past when he was obsessed with quirk analysis.

That sense of familiarity did help him in a way to overcome his initial issues, but if Uraraka had been able to help him as she tried to say to him that she wasn't allowed to in the past. Would had she succeded in her endeavor or not? Whatever that answer could be, Izuku was uninterested in the answer. thinking about what if and what if not was not healthy and Izuku preferred to focus on what was real and in front of him.

Maybe in another world, another time, she would had not only been allowed to try but also would have succeeded, but in this one, that scenario was never meant to be. Izuku wished for her to be happy, but he wouldn't entertain alternatives or what-ifs, he would move forward with his life with how things had gone for him, and she should do the same in order to be happy and stop being focused on the past, a past in which the yearnings of her heart were never meant to be by the cruel hand of fate.

On a plane that was going to America from Japan, Hisashi Midoriya and Inko Midoriya were going to spend one week there in order to deal with Hisashi's last duty to the WHA before he could return to Japan for good.

His temporal appointment to the HPSC that had been caused by the previous president of the HPSC declaring to the WHA that the Japanese branch of the HPSC had been compromised was a temporal measure until a proper replacement could be found..., and it was clear that those MLA members of the HPSC had done their best to prevent competent people from being hired on the HPSC and keep the number of personnel low in order to keep the average worker overworked so none of them would had the energy to think about trying to reach the position of the president of the HPSC. that meant that Hisashi Midoriya was the only capable person to manage the HPSC and that meant that there was some paperwork that he needed to get done in order to resign his position in the WHA as the representative of Japan to take the role of the HPSC.

Hisashi did remember what Cathleen told him about this being an opportunity for him and after some deliberation, Hisashi decided to go through it and filled out the paperwork to make it official, and his trip to America was to have a quick meeting with the other representatives to say his goodbyes and to pack his things from his residence in a private building for the representatives that were stationed there. If Hisashi was honest, he was downgrading in a way his salary and responsibilities in comparison to what he did while working on the WHA, but he had put too much time into the WHA at the cost of his family and he felt that he had earned the right of being able to be a part of his son's life even if he knew that Izuku was having some issues about his presence on his life now.

Hisashi was not blind to his son's awkwardness about dealing with him and he knew that Izuku had some issues about his recent decisions that were related to his hero career, but Izuku preferred to keep it to himself over bothering him because Izuku believed that he was only in japan on a temporal manner.

Hisashi's failures as a parent and how things went still irked him, he felt like he was running away from his responsibilities and if he had caught a whiff of the things that Bakugo and Aldera did to Izuku, then he would have run back to japan to deal with them on his own if needed, job and responsabilites be damned.

But now he had a lot of years to catch up as a parent and considering that Izuku was being looked over as a potential number one after endeavor, then Izuku would had a lot on his plate. With no important secret to hide now that would made the next number one hero of Japan to act like All Might did when he decided to conceal his true situation about his injuries, then Hisashi should be able to support the number one of the country and he hoped that he would still be around by the time Izuku became the next number one.

So with his mind made up and all that was needed to be done for that switch of job from the representative of the WHA from Japan to a president of the HPSC branch of Japan to be valid, he waited for the plane to reach the airport and he knew that Star and Stripe would have Izuku and his friends to act as his bodyguards and escort so he could reach the main building of the WHA in America safe and sound.

He also wanted to show Inko some of the places that he had frequented in the past and to show her a good time there before they returned to Japan for good.

"..." Izuku was now in an armored car alongside his mom, dad, and Kinoko and Izuku was just staring at his dad. The silence in the car was palpable and while Inko and Kinoko were looking at how their significant others were just looking at each other like they wanted to say something but they weren't able to find the words, Izuku and Hisashi were just still locked in that stalemate.

"..." Hisashi was still trying to find the words to explain to Izuku why he was there, but he was unable to find anything. Inko decided to break the tension by saying something.

"Izuku, Eri says that misses you..., she is having fun with that Aiba girl, but that she wants you to return soon." Inko said.

"I see..." Izuku said.

"Well..., this is our last week in America, so we are going to be back in U.A. soon..." Kinoko chimed in.

"Yeah..., that little girl has a lot of admiration for you, Izuku..., and considering that you saved her from that monster, then is obvious why..." Hisashi said.

"That girl was tortured by a deranged monster that wanted to eradicate quirks..., she also had the misfortune of finding Blondie and his friend who decided that Sir Assnight's investigation was worth more saving a clearly abused kid from her abuser..., so no wonder that she got attached to those that actually saved her from her abuser's clutches." Izuku said.

This allowed the tense atmosphere to dissipate a little and Izuku and Hisashi had some small talk before they reached the building of the WHA. Hisashi was unable to find the courage to tell Izuku about his final decision and it appeared that Izuku would found out about his plan to stay in Japan for good after his meeting with his soon-to-be ex-colleagues from the WHA. This was one more of his failings as a parent that Hisashi had and he hoped that now that Izuku would know that he was going to stay in his life for good, then he would at least open up a little more to him, but only time would tell.

Chapter 29

Chapter Text

"This building is massive!" Setsuna said. after escorting Izuku's parents to the main building of the WHA in America, Izuku, his mom, and the others were told to stay in a waiting area while Hisashi Midoriya conducted his business there.

"Yeah, you are right..., the WHA has a lot of money if they were able to afford the building of this place." Ochako said. the others were chatting while Izuku was still puzzled about what his dad was doing. he had told him that he was going to put and end to one particular issue that had being tearing their family apart. Izuku didn't knew what he wanted to imply with it.

"Izuku...?" Inko asked, she looked at how Izuku was so lost in his thoughts after that talk with his dad and she was concerned a little.

"Mom?" Izuku said.

"You looked a little distracted"

"...dad is too secretive for his own good." Izuku said.

"What do you mean?" Inko said.

"He wanted to tell me something..., I could feel it, but he was unable to find the words..., and for what he said..., it doesn't really help me to understand his motives..." Izuku said.

"Izuku..., you know that your dad has been working in a line of work in which confidentiality and secretism were almost required..., the distance that he kept from us in the past did help him to keep things secret, but now that he can interact with us..., he doesn't know what to do."

"I know Mom..., I know..., but is just frustrating me a little..., that is all." Izuku said. time passed and after two hours. Hisashi Midoriyarstoppedretunred to the group and decided to announce to Izuku and the others about what had transpired.

"Izuku..., at this point forward, I had stopped being the Japanese representative of the WHA in America and now I am the president of the HPSC." Izuku heard those words and was unable to process what his dad had said.

"..."

"Izuku?" Kinoko said.

"is that true...?" Izuku could only ask that, he was still trying to process the situation and was trying to confirm if what his dad said was true.

"yes..., I decided to stay in Japan for good, and that meant that I needed to end my tenure as a representative of Japan on the WHA organization, and since the only capable person at the moment that can manage the HPSC is me..., then I decided to take the opportunity to switch to a profession that would allow me to be close to my family." Hisashi said.

"And that means...?"

"That I will stay in Japan for good." Hisashi said. Izuku did heard that and in a way was happy, but he wanted not to get his hopes up unless he saw real proof about that statement, so he waited for the end of the week to see if his words were true or not, but he felt that he was telling the truth this time.

A day passed after that announcement and while the other kids were on a patrol with a hero in Washington D.C., Izuku was escorting his parents in order to help Hisashi to pick his things back from his apartment in the area before both Inko and him returned to Japan.

Izuku saw how spartan was his dad's apartment and was surprised to see that aside from the furniture, the most distinctive thing was some newspapers that had news related to him.

"I expected something more...luxurious." Izuku said.

"It was not my style..., and besides, I felt that if got too comfortable here, then I would forget about you two." Hisashi admitted.

"Hah..., that is so like you, dear." Inko said.

There was not much to explore in that apartment that looked more like an apartment for a Japanese university student who lived in a frugal way to save money than an expensive home that his dad could have afforded to live with his salary.

"you know..., I had a question pop into my mind, and even if is a little crazy, I want to ask it." Izuku said.

"Sure..., go ahead." Hisashi asked.

"Okay..., so, since you ended working in America when I was four..., then why didn't you took us to America to live there? I mean..., things looked way better for a quirkless person there in America, and maybe, if you took me there before that day in which I got tested if I had a quirk, then maybe I wouldn't be even quirkless person...? I know that it's a weird question, but that thing had been floating in my mind for a while and maybe if I got an anwser, then I would get it out of my head." Izuku said.

"Yeah..., you have a point about that being a weird question in a way..., but the reason was that in those times, there was a certain security concern about having the families of the representatives of the WHA in America could in a way make them easy targets..., I could had taken you two with me anyways and had some security service agents to keep you safe, but I didn't thought about it..., maybe I should had done that when you were three years old..." Hisashi said.

"I see..., sorry for the weird question..., in the end, I shouldn't get too obsessed about what-ifs and what-if-nots and focus on what my life is." Izuku said.

"Don't worry kid. Everyone has those moments about thinking about how their lives would have gone if their circ*mstances had been different. Is not a bad thing to think about it, but as you said, focus on how your life is going and consider those thoughts a temporal distraction." Hisashi said. The Midoriyas were now helping Hisashi to pack his beloignis in order to leave the apartment for good. a new chapter was going to be written in the story of Izuku Midoriya, and Hisashi will now be part of it in a more involved way.

A couple of days before Izuku and the others returned to Japan, a villain was causing a disturbance in the main street of an American city and that villain was immune to fire. that villain was treating the heroes with killing the hostages unless Izuku fought him himself.

That villain wanted to humiliate Izuku and since Izuku had been showing that he favored his fire and psychic quirk over close combat, then that villain believed that Izuku was unable to fight him mano a mano.

That villain was too cooky about how he was going to humiliate Izuku before killing him, only that villain to be punched in the stomach by Izuku's right fist with enough force that it knocked the air out of his lungs.

"You think that without my quirk I am out of options..., it's a shame for you that my fists are as powerful as my quirk in a way." Izuku said and then he activated his quirk in order to empower himself. the villain tried to talk big and activated his quirk to protect himself from that green fire, but Izuku's flame-enhanced fist wasn't nullified and that villain was incapacitated in that second strike. What he learned about how to fight while using ofa was something that Izuku didn't forget, but he preferred to take advantage of villains that weren't smart enough to catch on his decision to show half of what he could do to the TV and he just showed in public that long-ranged fighting style to make the villains' think that he was unable to fight at his fulled at close range, only to show that all those muscles that he had weren't for show and then he showed how good he was in close distance fighting.

A lot of people forgot that he was a close-combat-only hero student before the incident with AFO returned his quirk and he was forced to relearn how to fight, Izuku decided to keep his options open and to bait villains into only being prepared for half of what he could do. Sure, he lost in a hand-to-hand spar without quirks against someone more dexterous in hand-to-hand combat like Itsuka, but those were training spars and there was no real intention to beat your foe into unconsciousness if you had to.

He knew that since villains in this world also followed the news, then he needed to make sure to try to keep some information about his skills to himself to not give up a massive advantage to the villains like the other heroes did in the past. all might presence did made some heroes to grow a little too comfortable with that peace and they were a little more relaxed with those kinds of concerns.

Times were changing and Izuku wanted to adapt to that situation in which the villains, while still emboldened by All Might's retirement, would know that their villainous actions were not going to be tolerated.

Their last day in America came and then Star and Stripe wanted to throw a modest party for the kids as a way to end their hero studies on a high note. they were still kids, so nothing really wild was planned. she just invited them to a private restaurant for heroes in America and let them eat what they wanted for free as a treat for her part.

Izuku was trying to taste a lot of American delicacies while Kinono was looking for dishes that had mushrooms in them. the others were also looking for things that they would like and even if there was no real limit to what they could eat, they decided to not go that wild and eat until they knew that it was enough.

Izuku watched how Itsuka was talking with Star and Stripe and he could see in a way that the American heroine had taken a clear interest in her aside from Izuku. Those two connected in a way during the month and it was clear that Star and Stripe saw something in Itsuka that intrigued her.

That connection reached the point that the heroine told her that when she was of age and had a license to drive, then she would give her a custom motorcycle for her to use. Something told Izuku that Itsuka was going to work in America for a long time alongside the American number one and that she would enjoy her time there.

As for Izuku and the others. The heroine did give them all and unique hero collectible card that despite being a low rarity card, it was signed and dedicated to each and every one of them. that card was from her in that blue kimono that Star and Stripe's niece made for her. That was what Izuku asked the heroine to do, to make a low-level collectible item to had a priceless value by making a low rarity version of that card that was now a super rare and not only signed specifically for them, but also had some words directed at them.

it wasn't something crazy, but Izuku liked the contrast. that low rarity card was actually the real super rare version of it and that made the normal super rare version to be less valuable in a way. That was the last souvenir that they took from America to Japan before they returned to their normal lives as hero students in U.A.

In the plane that was taking Izuku and his friends to Japan. Only Izuku and Kinoko were awake now. the others decided to take a nap and they decided to talk in whispers to not wake them up.

"So..., did you had fun in this month?" Izuku said.

"Yeah..., it was fun, a shame about missing the mushroom festival..." Kinoko said.

"I know..., but my offer still stands..." Izuku said and Kinoko smiled at him.

"I wonder what the future has in store for us..."Kinoko said.

"I don't know..., but life can change a lot in just a second, and if it took one day to make my life spiral out of control before getting back on track, the future can look a little scary..., but I have you and my friends at my side..., so at least I have the strength to move forward." Izuku said.

"yeah..., we are in this together." Kinoko said and both of them enjoyed the silence before they decided to nap as well.

Their adventures in America are over for now, and with Izuku's dad now in Japan after resigning from his position to be the new head of the HPSC for real. Izuku was now waiting to see if his dad would be a part of his life for real and to be more than just a voice with an internet connection. the first year of school in U.A. wasn't even over yet and his life had changed a lot in a short amount of time.

From Bakugo's imprisonment after the truth about his true character was revealed to the public in the sports festival, to the I-Island incident and the fight on Kamino that ended with AFO's death and with his original quirk returned to him. Izuku had been through a lot before the end of the summer in a direct way and then the overhaul incident and the stomping of the MLA were incidents in which his involvement was pretty minor in comparison. He at best saved Eri from overhaul and got him captured, only to be sidelined by Sir Nighteye, and in the MLA uprisings, he was just doing a sidekick job over fighting in Deika City. Izuku saw that he was not going to be involved in all the incidents that occurred in Japan and tried to at least be prepared for those in which he would be directly involved.

To be a hero was something that in the beginning something that he wanted to do to fill the emptiness in his heart, but now that he had someone who loved him and friends who supported him, then he was a hero not only for himself, but for those that he cared about.

The path of being a hero was not easy and even if Izuku was a first-year student of the hero course, he had been forced to be a hero on a couple of occasions. Izuku just hoped that things would slow down now a little, but if that was not going to happen..., then he would be ready, because he was here and ready for whatever comes next.

Chapter 30

Chapter Text

Izuku and the others returned to U.A. after the whole hero work studies in America and aside from the curiosity of their friends, they moved over from that event quickly and now they were surprised by the fact that a couple of things happened in their absence.

Shoto Todoroki was back not only in U.A. but he was back in class 1-A, had recovered his quirk somehow, and was hanging with Sakura Aiba. it appeared to Izuku that something happened while the others and him were away, and as much as he didn't cared too much about how things ended like this, that surprising change in the status quo of U.A. at least was something that needed a basic explanation, because the last thing that Izuku knew about Todoroki was that he was in a psychiatric ward in a hospital after what happened to him in Kamino. do not get him wrong, he was in a way happy to see that Todoroki was doing fine despite that whole mess, but that sudden development needed an explanation at least.

So he one day talked to Sakura and she pretty much filled him in on the situation. Recovery Girl decided to take her under her wing as an apprentice to be a heroine like her and while Izuku was busy fighting villains and going to America to do that hero work study bankrolled by the WHA, Sakura was practicing with her healing quirk under Recovery Girl's guidance and one of the cases that she had to take was to mend the broken mind and body of Shoto Todoroki after the whole Kamino ward incident.

In the beginning, Sakura was not really too thrilled to do that at first, but Kaminari's shamelessly flirting irked her too much to the point that she took Recovery Girl's offer to avoid being near him as much as possible. And by the time Izuku and the others returned from America, she was now actually considering entering the hero course.

A whole romance plot happened right under his nose and while Setsuna asked her for details about how it went, the abridged version was that Sakura and Recovery Girl went to that psychic ward where Todoroki was healing from the injuries that he endured, and while Sakura's quirk was weak because she didn't used it too much, the power to emit a warm sensation based on her emotional responses in her situation that healed people near her based on her emotional state did slowly but surely put Todoroki's fractured mind back together, that kind of healing was in part more emotional driven that just physical, so Todoroki in that broken state had his other emotions stimulated a little to the point that he was able to think rationally without being under any sort of medication that prevented him from having a near endless mental breakdown because they turned off his emotions. Once he recovered enough, Todoroki was sent back home and then he returned to the general course, people did stayed away from him still, but Sakura was the only one who stuck at his side.

And since Sakura decided to take some time to check on Eri while Izuku was away, Todoroki ended up following her because since he was still a class pariah in a way, then he had no social call to attend, then he just followed her in those moments. Inko Midoriya or an agent of the HPSC that Hisashi Midoriya selected after making sure that said person was fit to look after Eri were around Eri to help her with any sort of trouble that she had during her day-to-day living, but there were moments when she was alone in a way. and certain retired hero decided to take advantage of that situation to try to coerce Eri into using her quirk to restore his and Mirio's quirk by rewinding them to the time that they had it, to U.A.'s credit, the moment that Sir Nighteye and Mirio's presence was caught in the camera of Eri's home, they sent Midnight and Cementoss to see what was going on, but by the time that they came, both Sir and Mirio were encased in ice blocks and while Sakura was recovering from vomiting blood because Sir decided to throw one of his weighted seals to get her out of the way to her stomach, Todoroki was showing that his quirk was back with him.

That would explain why Izuku's parents returned to Japan that quickly despite the fact that his dad wanted to take his mom on a short trip to America.

Sir Nighteye sneaked there while Sakura and Todoroki were there and sir in his usual ways decided that the best way to get Eri to cooperate with her was to shout and scold her for being the source of those quirk-erasing bullets that ruined Mirio's future, Eri stood her ground the best she could and refused to rewind them, and then Sir decided to hurt Sakura to force her to use her quirk. Eri panicked and lost control of her quirk and in a way she rewinded someone back to having their quirk back before she fainted. but when Sir was about to complain that he didn't feel his quirk back, he and Mirio were encased in ice by a clearly pissed off Todoroki that now was rewinded to a point in time before his kidnapping when he still had his quirk.

Needless to say, Mirio was expelled for being part of that event and Sir Nighteye was sent to Tartarus for that mess. Izuku's dad told him that Sir Nighteye was not going to see the light of day for a long time and while Izuku wanted to go to Tartarus to crush that bastard skull for crossing the line with that stupid ploy of his, he decided to let things like that. That event in a way caused that after some time, when Eri was able to get a better grip on her quirk, she moved with the Midoriyas in a more permanent way. at least that was the last time that something akin to a scandal happened in U.A., things calmed down a lot after that event.

The second year of class for the hero class of U.A. came and while Izuku still was still flying solo in a way, the new classes of 2-A and 2-B were still going strong in a way. Class 2-A was starting to get their numbers up again with some students that transferred from other schools to U.A. aside from Todoroki, who recovered his spot in class, and Sakura, who ended up transferring to the hero course before the end of the class year.

Their routine didn't change that much, and aside from a particular dangerous villain or two that broke the monotony of their school life, Izuku and the others didn't have to deal with the same kind of events that they dealt with in their first year.

They even returned to the I-Island for the expo of that year and they met with Melissa again, who was now an independent researcher and inventor on I-Islandwhose situation improved a lot in comparison to the previous year. To the people of the island, she became a hero of sorts when her involvement in the events of the previous I-expo were revealed to the other scientists. David Shield's involvement was still unknown to the people and he decided to take a secondary role while supporting her daughter to atone for his actions.

Izuku was a little surprised to see that Bibimi was also there after she graduated from U.A., but since Melissa was searching for potential partners and Star and Stripe recommended her one day that both women interacted in I-Island, then it became more obvious why she was there.

Izuku did told them that he was counting on them if he needed gear and this time, that I-expo party wasn't interupted by any villain or was an accident that could sour the festive ambiance..., Izuku also won some mushroom-related plushies that Kinoko saw there in those fair attractions and he looked for things that Eri could like.

Izuku did fulfill his promise to Kinoko and both were back in Kennett Square, PA, so they could attend the annual Mushroom Festival that is celebrated there, needless to say, Kinoko was having the time of her life now.

"Whoa kid..., your girlfriend does love mushrooms a lot..." The heroine Star and Stripe said through her communicator to Izuku. Izuku, Kinoko, Itsuka, and Pony took this time the chance to do hero work studies in America again under the same heroine and as a treat for the work that they did the days before, the heroine decided to let them be in the area and participate in a way in the event as a part of the security of that festival. Izuku was the one that was doing part of the patrolling in the event while going undercover alongside Kinoko, but it was clear that Izuku was the one that was doing the bulk of the job.

"Well..., mushrooms are part of her quirk and her own identity as a person in a way..., so being given the chance to be here is the equivalent of a birthday party. So let her have fun." Izuku said.

"Look at you, mister understanding and caring boyfriend..., you are willing to shoulder the whole brunt of the job just for her happiness..., I am a little jealous in a way." the heroine said.

"Well..., maybe I'm willing to go plus ultra in my love life..., but I believe that an effort to show that you care about your partner is a basic requirement for a relationship to work..., the other is to find someone that is compatible with you and capable of appreciate your efforts. As long as one can keep a positive loop of feedback running in a relationship, then things can work out for two people, but in the end, all is about putting effort into a relationship, but that is how I feel about that subject." Izuku said.

"That is one way to look at it." The heroine said. Star and Stripe was not really interested in having a relationship at the moment, but maybe Izuku had a point, love was not that simple and Izuku's point of view was one of the possible ways to do things, but she resonated in a way with his philosophy in matters of love.

"Yeah..., it is" Izuku said and focused back on the event. Kinoko was having fun using her near-encyclopedic knowledge to impress people and even participated in a mushroom-related dish eating contest in which she enjoyed eating mushrooms that were prepared in different dishes that were from different countries around the world.

She won a cookbook about a lot of mushroom-related dishes that were prepared in the world alongside other things, and aside from some merchandise that Izuku bought for the day. Kinoko didn't get out of the event empty-handed, but she also didn't when out of her way to carry more than needed.

"So..., are you sure about this?" Izuku asked to Itsuka. a couple of days had passed since the mushroom festival and now that they were back in Star and Stripe agency, Itsuka talked with Izuku about her plans for the future.

"Yes..., I think that it would be an opportunity for me..., besides, I like working with Star and Stripe a lot..." Itsuka said.

"...That is fair, is not uncommon for hero students from one country to become heroes in another..., but normally, that is something that people with ties to two countries does, like Pony said that she would do..., but you are Japanese..." Izuku said.

"I know..., but I find myself preferring this place in a way..." Itsuka said.

"Then go ahead. it's not like you are never going to return to Japan or something, you are just seeing that the American hero society may be the place for you to compete, and since you are building a positive relationship with Star and Stripe, then you may feel compelled to work here in a way..., but you need to follow your heart in this." Izuku said.

"Yeah..., I should..., thanks for listening to me." Itsuka said.

"No problem..., besides, is not like you aren't saying that you would never return to japan, maybe one day, you decide to come back to Japan to work as a heroine, and then your reputation in the States could help you..., but you should at least visit your parents from time to time." Izuku said.

"yeah..., is the least i can do..." Itsuka said. This conversation came because Itsuka wanted to ask Izuku about his perspective on her situation. Star and Stripe did offer her the chance to be one of her sidekicks and to work in America with her for good pay, and as much as the idea of being the tutelage of the number one heroine of America was an opportunity to not waste, Itsuka did still felt connected to japan.

Maybe Izuku's perspective on her issue was a little skewed because of his childhood situation with his own father, but Itsuka was the one who should choose her own future and to have doubts about what path to take wasn't a bad thing. This was a life-changing decision, and to take it seriously and think carefully about it was the right thing to do, Izuku could only try to help her and warn her about the damage that she could do to her loved ones, her parents in this case, and also told her that she should abstain herself for having a romantic relationship with someone in japan for her peace of mind and to avoid future heartache.

Izuku also decided to think about his future and aside from his relationship with Kinoko, which was still going strong, Izuku's biggest problem was about what kind of hero he wanted to be. That question a long time ago had a simple answer that was " the hero that saves people with a smile like All Might did" but now, he was not so sure about what was his answer now. He fought for those that he loved and cared about, but to be a real good hero, one should fight for something bigger than themselves.

Izuku knew that he was not All Might and that he couldn't be that kind of hero that he wanted to be in the beginning..., but he didn't need to.

Izuku Midoriya was someone who was shaped by his experiences and events that happened to him, he fought for love, but that didn't mean that he was going to be a worse hero for it. He still was training to be a hero and even if he had some reputation now thanks to what happened the past year, Izuku shouldn't let that to overwhelm him.

He still had time to figure out things and he also had people to help him to find his path in life. A lot of time had passed since that fateful day in the sports festival of the first-year students that Izuku was part of and then those two videos trew a branch on the lives of a lot of people, his included, and only recently Izuku was able to look forward in the horizon and wondered what would come next to him.

The gift of future sight was something that Izuku learned to hate thanks to Sir Nighteye's actions, so Izuku could only move forward without letting that uncertainty deter him. There were going to be always things and even knowledge that was going to be out of reach for him, but Izuku shouldn't let that get in his way. like for example, who was the author of that third video that ruined Eraserhead's career. up to this day, the culprit was still unknown and maybe that person would get away with him, only the person who made that video would know the motive and the reasons behind their actions.

Mawata Fuwa was a student of the hero course of the third year now watched how Eraserhead was looking at them with some hesitation when he watched over their heroic training.

Nobody in her class really forgave Eraserhead for his scare tactics about expelling them on the first hour of class and while he tried to say that it was for their good. nobody else but her beloved in a way, and even she now knew that it was not true anymore.

One day while she was on the first day of a second year, she had an encounter with the parents of one of the kids that Eraserhead expelled without reason and she got attacked in a violent way when she tried to say to them that what Eraserhead did was good in the end. she had told those words to the parents of a kid that had committed suicide two years ago because of it.

After that event, she decided to look at the future of those ex-students and she realized that she and her classmates were too lucky in comparison to those who came before them. a lot of them either killed themselves when that black mark that was still in their records closed the possibility of a normal future for all of them or turned into villains.

She was almost lost for words about that clear disregard to what heroism was and she alongside a few of those remaining students who had the luck of finding a way out of that pit of despair were responsible for that third video. There was no atonement for her crime and her punishment was to not only sing empty praises for a man who never deserved any of those kinds of words to keep up her facade of being innocent and to let the guilt about what she did consume her from the inside because she was part of a villainous action that would ruin her career more than the black mark that was still in her records after Eraserhead scare. Her only solace was that Eraserhead was now unable to even do that anymore and heroic society changed to prevent those kinds of people from getting to that kind of level of power again. so she hoped that people like Izuku Midoriya and others would create a better future thanks to her actions, because even if she was not a heroine anymore in her own heart, she could at least fight to make sure that those who came after her would be better that she was.