He watched the slime-monster he thought he had just defeated envelop the boy he thought he had just saved.

He watched as the blond boy's struggling finally ceased.

He watched as the other heroes did his job, not as quickly and not as well.

He watched as two children died because he didn't have the strength of mind and will to break down his own limitations and failed to save either of them.

Heart heavy, the great All Might, defender of the innocent and Symbol of Peace, walked back to his home to prepare for his new job as a teacher.

He sat back into the couch as Nedzu had instructed, hoping dearly that the principal would remember something he had to do that might cut his lecture short. He had wanted to at least be able to teach for a portion of his class' rescuing test, but if he couldn't, he at least wanted to make an appearance. Thirteen and Aizawa could handle the teaching on their own.

Nedzu dropped down from the desk he had been perched upon, scampering to the floor in an animalistic fashion before popping back up on two feet and putting his hands behind his back to face All Might. "Have you decided who your successor will be, then?"

All Might, looking disgruntled, stared for a second and shook his head. "I've haven't even been with the kids for a month."

"Ah, I see, I see. Of course, such an important choice would require very thorough thinking! However, while I do encourage you to take your time, you should remember that we are on a time limit, after all. Your health will only continue to decline, and the public will need a new Symbol of Peace once you're gone. We need all the time we have to train one up."

"Well, that's what I'm here for, isn't it?" All Might said gruffly. "And even if the successor doesn't become ready in time, one of the other pro-heroes can take my seat."

Nedzu wagged his finger at All Might while shaking his head. "Unfortunately, that would never do," he said soberly. "All the other pros who are competent enough to become the Symbol of Peace are already well-established in the mind's eye of the public, so they can't set any new impressions."

"But the underground ones, like Aiza-"

"And most of those who have been avoiding the media have the wrong temperament or simply aren't strong enough."

All Might sighed, looking down. "So it's gotta be one of the kids. Who do you think would work?"

"Well, the truth is, I have no clue! I've never spoken to any of them. Who's left the best impression on you?"

"Most of them aren't even worth mentioning. Iida is smart and has good a good lineage, but his quirk is underwhelming and he isn't the best-natured. Tokoyami and Shinsou are powerful but their quirks are better suited for villains. Todoroki is powerful, but the Symbol of Peace has to have some kind of charisma. He might make a good number two someday, a powerful hero who just can't make himself beloved by the people. Yaoyorozu is smart and strong as well, but her quirk isn't suited for being a front-liner either."

"Ah, so many of your complaints are about their quirks. Don't forget, you'll be passing on One for All to them, so that's not really anything to worry about. Purely based on personality, who would you say would be the best pick?"

"...Aoyama."

The principal tapped his forehead with a finger, trying to recall who the mentioned student was. "Do you mean the boy who can shoot a laser from his naval region?"

"Yes."

"I don't know, I think he might be a bit over the top…"

"That was my point," All Might said sullenly. "None of them would work. They're all too soft, too cold, too plain. Even if they could manage the persona, it would have to be faked, and the people will catch on to the disingenuous behaviour."

"I see, that is quite a conundrum. Well, let's think about this for a while. Do you have any solutions in mind?"

"No. None." Seeing his opening after he had already said the words, All Might added in, hurriedly, "Why don't we think about this for now and talk about it again tomorrow?"

His ploy was unnoticed entirely, however, as Nedzu seemed uninterested in ending their conversation. "No, I think we're headed somewhere interesting. If none of your students has the capacity to become the Symbol of Peace, how can we fix that?"

All Might looked at him, almost glaring, without replying.

"Well, while your initial complaints were that their quirks were unsuited to the task, you quickly realised that their individual personalities wouldn't work either. So why don't we look at why All Might's persona worked so well?"

All Might looked at Nedzu, finally interested.

"Of course, your biggest achievement was in defeating All for One, or the great villain who terrorised everyone. Of course, you were fairly popular before this, and big victories will come naturally to the one who becomes the Symbol of Peace, so we can take this out of the equation. The other big factor is that you're a hero everyone aspires to be, can relate to, and can see as someone who is almost a god amongst them while still being an equal. Essentially, your popularity is because you are peerless, yet still present yourself as touchable by the common man. Do you have any thoughts stemming from this?"

All Might shook his head, frowning, but focussed. "Go on."

"Actually, I have an idea. If one person can't match you, why don't we form a new group of heroes to take your place together? If their personalities are diverse enough, there will be something for everyone to connect to, and we can market them like characters, which should help their popularity."

All Might shook his head. "But who will get One for All? Who'll be the new Symbol of Peace?"

"None of them, of course, and all of them."


Thirteen was defeated immediately. He engaged the villain nearest to him, and had his own quirk turned on him only moments later.

The remaining students could only watch, rooted to their spots.

They couldn't win against even one real villain without a real hero, even as the rest of the students slowly trickled back from all the places they had been sent to, none of them could do anything. The villain with the warping quirk stood menacingly in front of the gate, blocking their passage but not taking any more offensive actions, whether it be from a fear of disobedience or a reluctance to willingly harm children.

But, they could not pass, they could not fight, and they had no help.

They stood, quaking and unharmed, until at last, Todoroki fought his way out of the landslide zone and made it back to them, and froze the villain into a chunk of ice without a blink. "I'm going to go help Aizawa-sensei," he said, and turned and left. The stunned gazes of the others following him. "You should all flee and go get help."

"I'll go too," Tsuyu croaked, but nobody else seemed to have the courage to follow her lead.

As she hopped forwards, Yaoyorozu reached out and stopped her. "No, don't go, you two. I saw a glimpse of the fight when Jirou, Kaminari and I were coming back. He's losing, badly. We should all escape and bring back people who can really fight."

"We don't need everyone to do that," Tsuyu replied, and ran after Todoroki.

Neither she nor Todoroki looked back at their classmates, both knowing that the other was thinking the same things: Selfish. Cowards.

But even Todoroki stopped when he saw the battlefield.

It was littered with the unconscious or dead bodies of countless defeated villains, with only two figures left moving: The blue-haired man with the disembodied hands clutching at his body, and a too-muscular raven crouched over the body of their teacher, bloodying the ground around him in a growing radius.

Todoroki stumbled closer, Tsuyu behind him, just near enough to hear the one-sided conversation broken by bouts of manic laughter.

He and Tsuyu watched, crouched just barely out of view, dumbstruck.

And then there was a hand drifting too fast towards Tsuyu and an insane face following it; it latched onto her face and stayed, but nothing happened.

"...Damn it. You really are cool aren't you?"

Momentary stunning vanishing in an instant, Tsuyu wrenched herself free and dived into the water as he slammed his hand to the ground and encased their attacker in a pillar of ice.

The bird looked at him and charged. He was unable to see its movements, but it seemed to be trying to free his master rather than kill him. As he fell back from his own loss of balance, Tsuyu caught him in her tongue and launched him up, and he froze over both the villains again as soon as he straightened out in the air.

He landed hard, unsteady on his legs, but rushed to join Tsuyu beside Aizawa, amazed by the fact that he, against all odds, was struggling to his feet with the girl's support, and despite looking extremely unsteady, seemed like he was preparing to keep fighting.

He was right to do so, and unlike Tsuyu and Todoroki, was ready when the bird broke out of its encasement and smashed the other's as soon as it got out. Before the human villain could do anything else, Aizawa was already on top of him, weapon wrapped tightly around his opponent's neck as he sprinted towards him, quirk activated, and leaped backwards using the villain and his scarf as a springboard. His movements were sloppy and slow in comparison to his usual standard, but the attack worked anyways and he managed to slam the human villain down and choke him into unconsciousness before the mutated monster took a swipe at him that launched him and sent him to the ground again and resumed its onslaught of merciless pounding.

"Freeze him!" Tsuyu said urgently into Todoroki's ear, but he shook his head, no, he couldn't, he had already used up almost all his power in three big attacks and he could feel the frost creeping up the side of his body.

"Do something!" Tsuyu shouted this time, staring frantically at Todoroki's horrified face as he watched Aizawa get pummeled by the villain again.

Ignoring him, Tsuyu bounded several steps forward, using the momentum to accelerate her tongue shooting towards Aizawa to slip around his body and pull him away from his attacker.

Even when he's been yanked to safety and the last remaining villain is looking left and right, confused that his prey that should have remained motionless had disappeared, Aizawa made no move to stand.

Tsuyu was shaking Aizawa, Todoroki realised a few moments later, and then with a jolt, noticed that rather than doing anything helpful, he was standing, shell-shocked, and only endangering the others. He grit his teeth and dropped to a crouch, muttering, "Aizawa-sensei," only to be met with a continuous, desperate stream of "run," "flee," and "escape."

All of a sudden, there was a smash and then the monster was staring right at him, and before his mind could process anything, he had frozen it again. He could feel the frostbite stretching up his side now, numbing his body. He had to melt himself, attack in a new, different way. He had to. But he couldn't. He wouldn't.

As the hulking avian villain shattered his prison again, there was suddenly a loud crash from somewhere far away, the purple villain appeared again out of nowhere, and Todoroki prepared himself to freeze him again as Tsuyu rose and shifted her stance, but the villain seemed disinterested in them, only calling off the bird with a wave of his hand and creating a warp tunnel beneath the blue-haired villain and sending him away.

He looked at Todoroki and Tsuyu, angry but not threatening, and said, "We've lost. Leave us be," as he created another warp gate and vanished with his mindless beast close behind him.

Dazed, Todoroki turned to Tsuyu, eyes questioning, but the frog-like girl had already returned to Aizawa's side, pushing him gently and mumbling, "Aizawa-sensei, please wake up," over and over again. Todoroki turned and looked up.

All Might.

That was why the villains had given up and fled. The Symbol of Peace himself stood, tall and proud, arms at his sides, at the doorway that had been blown wide open. Seconds later, there were other teachers, heroes, streaming in from behind, to find that the fight was over and the building was near-empty. They all stopped before the stairs of the entry platform, taking in the scene before Present Mic suddenly began sprinting towards them.

When he finally reached them, he bent over Aizawa immediately, ignoring the beginnings of Todoroki's questions and Tsuyu's teary-eyed repetition of Aizawa's name.

"He's alive," Mic said a few moments later, and carefully rolled him over and picked him up with both arms. "You two, go to the other teachers and get someone to escort you back to the school. Leave this for the adults to deal with."

Tsuyu nodded, still shaking, and reached for Todoroki's hand to give them both stability as they wandered, tripping over themselves and lilting seriously to either direction more than once, up the stairs to where All Might took them both into his hands and brought them quickly back to the school using his quirk.