Izuku had lost his mind.

That was the only explanation that Mina could come up with. He had fully lost what few strands of sanity that he had been clinging to since their previous outing.

There wasn't any need for any of this – It didn't even make any sense whatsoever. There was no need to fight Monoma just to prove that Kirishima was being an idiot – Just show off One For All's Full Cowling ability, and this would all be over! All of the hostility that Kirishima had towards Izuku would be gone! It would probably be enough to make him at the very least reconsider all of the crap that he'd been talking over the last few months.

But Izuku had decided that it was necessary to show off his inherited power in a show of force. Like it would make any serious difference. Like that was somehow, going to fix the situation. There wasn't any logic to it at all. Nothing that made any sense, obvious or otherwise.

Not to her, at least.

It was like Izuku wasn't even himself at this point. Izuku had been, until this point, one of the smartest people that Mina had ever known. He was methodical, and careful, and when he considered something, he really explored every single angle. The whole idea of Heroes was his, and he had weighed up all the pro's and all the cons carefully before he allowed himself to commit to the idea.

Everything had to take its toll on him. Mina got the feeling that he didn't like being a leader all that much, but took on the role because he had no other choice. His friends had grown to rely on him, and look towards him for direction. It wasn't the role that he wanted, but it was the role that he'd been given, and he was doing his best to make the most out of it. He'd earned all of their respect.

Now though, it was clear that relying on him too much had damaged his psyche.

They weren't in the 1A dorms anymore. They weren't even outside them. Instead, they had made their way towards the training blocks that The First Generation group had previously used to try to improve their Quirks, and test out their costumes. The one in which the security camera had been a part of hadn't been replaced, but the rest of the damage, like the holes and cracks, all had been. It was the only place that Izuku could think of that would allow this fight to go ahead uninterrupted.

Izuku was surprised that Kirishima and Monoma even agreed to it – Though it was probably a lot better than the alternative options – Having the fight in their dorm-house, and messing the place up more, or having it outside the dorm-house, and risk having someone come to break up the fight.

Given the opportunity to prove his rantings right, Kirishima wouldn't want to risk being interrupted. Besides, he had a feeling this was going to be a lot more brutal a fight than anyone else seemed to realize.

So here they were. Izuku and Mina, along with a freed Katsuki and Uraraka, finding themselves standing opposite a long, concrete corridor from most of the rest of their class, and a fairly substantial part of the Yuuei student body too. Crowds attracted by the sounds of the battle that had taken place inside the 1A dorms, and those who saw the crowd followed to see what was going on. Many of them still distrusted, or even resented Izuku.

Good, was all Izuku thought. He wanted them to hate him right now. Because it was going to make this all the more impactful.

He smirked.

"Deku, this is insane!" Uraraka protested once more, clearly panicked by everything. "This – This doesn't – I don't – " She was just as flabbergasted as Mina, and easily understandably so. "This – This is insane!"

"You ask me, this had been a long fucking time coming." Katsuki retorted, a smug smirk on his lips. His preference for action as opposed to diplomacy had been well established. And he certainly wasn't in much of a mood to be diplomatic with Kirishima, Sero, or anyone else who sided with either, after he'd been taped up to a wall. The opportunity to see them eat the dirt for once was one he welcomed. "These fuckers have been trying my patience from day one. About time Deku got it into his head that we need to stand up to them."

Unlike Katsuki though, Uraraka had no such desire for conflict. "But this isn't necessary! All he needs to do is show them that he has a Quirk, and this can all be over!"

"Uraraka's right, Midori!" Mina said, trying everything that she could possibly think of to get him to stop this madness. "You don't even need to go this far! I don't – I don't get it!"

"I don't expect you to."

Izuku's response was ominous. Cryptic. Like he wasn't that keen on having others fully understand what he was thinking. Almost like he didn't want them to completely understand. Like he was thinking on some other plane that the others just wouldn't be able to understand. Like arrogance had entered every single cell in his brain.

The truth though, was a lot more human, and down to Earth, even if it was a rather callous logic.

"I can't explain it." He said, though it wasn't exactly true. He probably could explain these feelings and the reason he felt the need to confront those whom didn't trust him, but he'd need several hours to, and that was time he just didn't have. He looked across the other side of the training room, and saw Momoma and Kirishima speaking. "I…. I have to fight Monoma. I just have to."

"Why?!" That wasn't an answer! That was the biggest none answer Mina had ever heard in her life!

The Quirkless had more reason for their persecution of the Quirked than this – Quirks were scary, get them away. It was horrendous, and had caused nothing but grief, but there was some sense to it. But there wasn't any here.

Not unless Izuku just had finally reached the point where he was as hungry for revenge as those who did their thinking with their heart, and not their heads. And it wasn't like that wouldn't be understandable – After everything that he'd been through, it was quite possible that he'd just found himself unable to just sit back and allow himself to be walked over again. Maybe what had happened with the Nomu had caused him far more damage than anyone had realized.

Which was part of why Mina was so concerned and horrified by all of this.

All of this just had come right out of the blue. All day, he had been violently depressed. The Nomu incident had bothered him, and even though he refused to let that stop him, he still wouldn't simply go to rest without a fight. And now, here he was, ready to apparently batter Monoma into the next oblivion.

Was this him? Was this really Izuku, in his right mind, or was it the accumulate stress, depression, fatigue and reaction to the break in all taking over his rational thinking?

If he did this, was he going to regret it later? Or was this something he truly thought was best, in his right mind?

Katsuki chuckled. "You've finally got some fucking sense into you, Deku." He almost seemed proud.

Granted, he had enough solid faith in his friend to go along with this, no matter what, and he's be the first in line to assure Izuku that he'd done the right thing if he came to regret it. But still, it didn't make Mina want to throw a brick at his head any less.

What was more important to him – His personal desire to see Kirishima and Monoma humiliated and beaten down, or his friends well-being?!

"I wouldn't celebrate yet, Kacchan." Izuku said. "I… I know what I'm doing."

Calmness was all that came out of Izuku's mouth. A calm, collected response that had an underlying confidence underneath it. There was no reason for him to be worried. He knew that, and so did everyone around him. Still, for him to be able to exercise such an emotional distance from the situation was impressive, if nothing else. Everyone around him was more worked up than him, and he was the one that was on the front-line. It would be easy to let anger, fear, frustration and irrationality take over, but Izuku kept his composure. He looked over his shoulder, and saw Kirishima and Monoma hold their hands at head height, and clasped them together.

A sign of unity. Defiance. And were it any other two people, Izuku would have thought nothing more of it. But he knew better.

Again, just as he expected. His composure remained. A small sigh escaped his lips.

"I… If Kirishima is just shown that he's wrong, all that's going to happen is that he'll see he was wrong about me. And that won't change his mind. Not with what he's lived through." He tried to explain. "He's got these ideas… About how the world should be. About what the roles of the Quirked and the Quirkless should be. But I get the feeling he does care about people with Quirks… Inherently, I don't think he's a bad guy… But… His ideas are just wrong. He thinks that the Quirked need to use brute force. That they need to fight like lunatics, and cause enough anguish and grief in people that they'll give up and let him and his group do whatever they want. But… He's let himself get consumed by it." For a moment he paused. He'd been assessing Kirishima ever since he'd met the guy, and he felt like he understood what was making him work, even though Kirishima himself didn't. "Getting me out of Yuuei… It's never been about protecting the Quirked."

The others listened. For the first time since this standoff commenced, they didn't interrupt him. They let him talk.

So he carried on.

"…For him, it's been about getting the Quirkless out of the same place as him, because… I remind him of what happened to him. A Quirkless teenager, showing up in a place where everyone was supportive of each other… Of course he'd hate me." He shuddered, remembering the first day he met Kirishima, and learned about what had happened to him. "I… I think he lost his family to purists."

"H-Huh?" Uraraka gasped, but it was quiet.

Suspicions had been inside Izuku's mind for a long time. Kirishima's scars and where they had come from had been one of the first things he'd learned about the red-haired teenager.

When it came to his past, Kirishima tended to be tight lipped. Not unless people knew him very well. So what had given Izuku that idea? It was based on next to nothing.

Finally, Izuku turned to face Monoma. He could see his opponents grin – He thought he already had won this fight. He was a broken man walking, and only Izuku knew it.

"What the hell makes you say that?" Mina asked. Sweat was dropping from her forehead, and every pore that she had available on her skull. "What does that have to do with anything?!"

"It's a hunch right now. The best I've got… But… It would explain why he's such a hardliner against Quirked-Quirkless interaction. He'd only be like this is he lost someone important to him. Young, and alone in the world… Of course he'd resent the Quirkless. If not his family, a close friend, or someone else who was somehow important to him, I don't know. But he's ended up turning into something that he hated – A purist. And just proving that I'm not like the other Quirkless won't be enough."

He let out a sigh.

"I need to show him how absurd this all is. How utterly pointless all this fighting is. If I can just show him that, then maybe, just maybe…" He shook his head. "I can't expect anyone but me to understand this. But… I need to prove to him how insane this all is. And If I show Monoma too – All the better."

Nothing he said made any sense. He knew that all too well. He was the only one who knew what he meant, what he felt – And hearing himself speak, he didn't even have total confidence in his own words. He didn't even know if he trusted his own gut, or his own theories.

If only Todoroki were here. He'd probably be able to make more sense out of it.

Maybe. But he was still with Eri. He probably didn't even know that this was happening.

Then again, he was glad, in that sense at least. At least Eri wouldn't be made to see this, and would be somewhere far from what was about to happen.

At the end of the day, all that mattered was putting this matter to bed. It had haunted over the entirety of Yuuei ever since the day he stepped foot onto the grounds. Yuuei had always been a danger zone, a battleground for him and those who chose to associate with him. And it had developed more than Izuku had ever imagined. He had trusted Kirishima. He'd wanted to believe that one fight side by side had been enough.

It hadn't.

But this would.

This had to end.

He sighed again, and then took a step forward. His hands balled up into fists, and he let himself grin.

His fists slammed into one another. "Let's get this over with."

For a moment, it almost felt like it was a boxing match, or a martial arts tournament, and not a genetics-based grudge match between two teenagers whom held superpowers in their bodies. If this were some sort of sports competition, Monoma was the clear crowd favourite. Honestly, Izuku wasn't certain that he had any fans in the crowd of people who were fighting to get a glimpse of what was about to go down.

People who didn't want harm to come to him, sure, but not people who actively wanted him to be the one to come out victorious.

There wasn't any kind of official start to the match either. No referee to declare the match begun, no whistle, no bell, or anything of the sort.

Izuku just charged.

Without the use of One For All. For his plan to work, he needed to let the next few minutes pass, and make it look like he was bluffing about having any kind of power in his veins. The next few minutes were already set to be brutal, and painful. Especially against Monoma right now.

Confirmation of that came once he got within arms reach of the Copy Quirk user. His first was brought up, ready to launch straight for his jaw. Even without the use of his Quirk, he was fast, thanks to all the physical training he had. But he could be the strongest man in the world, and it wouldn't do a damn thing to counter the hook-punch that came slamming into his right cheek.

A hook-punch as solid as rock.

The punch carried Izuku along with it, knocking him off balance as anything with enough force would do. Air was blasted right out of his mouth, leaving him breathless. The room spun, before he managed to find his way back onto his feet.

Monoma had copied Kirishima's Hardening Quirk. Of course he had.

In Kirishima and Monoma's minds, there wasn't any doubt that Izuku was bluffing about having a Quirk. That he was going through with this fight just because he was stubborn. So – They might as well rough him up a bit. Force him to give up faster. Make him bleed.

Blood found its way onto Izuku's lips. He tasted the iron.

And grinned. Perfect.

Once his footing was back, he threw himself at Monoma again, changing nothing about his approach whatsoever – Running straight at his opponent, trying to launch a full-frontal assault.

Ending with the exact same result.

Next, he attempted to feint – Throw an attack to the right, and then actually attack with the left.

It ended the same way.

Then a kick.

Which was responded to with a Hardened kick, right against the hip-bone.

Mina wanted to charge out, to stop this with every single fiber of her being. Every single cell that she had was itching, aching to run out there and put an end to this.

Watching Izuku take strike after strike, only to just get up and charge straight in, asking for more – she not only couldn't understand it, watching it was physically painful for her, like she could psychosomatically feel the punches Monoma launched over and over again. This couldn't end well. She wanted to trust in Izuku, but how could she?

How could she trust that this was going to end well? How was she supposed to trust that this was going to have the effect Izuku wanted it to? How could anyone know that this wasn't going to wind up putting him in the nurse's office, or the hospital? And even if it went well, what happened after?

There was so much, she couldn't even begin to –

"Relax." A hand grabbed hold of her shoulder. Katsuki's. She could tell from the strength of his grip and how he didn't even bother being gentle in any way. "Have some faith."

"You're talking to me about faith?! He's not slept in two days, and he's not making any sense - "

"I've known the guy for sixteen years." The Explosion Quirk user glared at Mina, like he was trying to telepathically force her to shut up. "In case you haven't noticed, he's a fucking maniac. I've seen him go for over a week without sleep just looking after some Quirked prick we found on the streets. He's gone through a hell of a lot worse with people who have more of a spine than that shithead over there." His glare shifted over towards Kirishima, and then scanned over what was about to be the battlefield.

Izuku had been through bad situations before. Anyone who knew him for long enough saw first-hand that he didn't turn his back on a bad situation, but charged right in. He did everything he could to make things better, and it always ended up with him having the ever-loving crap beaten out of him. It always seemed like he got the short end of the stick, no matter what he did, or how hard he tried. And to Katsuki, Izuku had to have been insane. Constantly, he found himself faced with the sight of his best friend being beaten down, ridiculed, brutalized and shunned, all because of how he simply refused to join in with the discrimination against people with Quirks, and stood up for them. And he refused to change. He was even insane enough to accept a Quirk, just to come to this excuse of a dump for a school. He'd practically ended up devoting his entire life to facing adversity.

Katsuki spoke harshly about Izuku a lot – And he always meant it. The guy was reckless to the point of stupidity, and his idea of Heroism was flawed at best, completely and utterly stupid at worst. His insistence on helping every single person he met who had a Quirk, like they were little lost puppies, was not only frustratingly dumb, it was borderline insulting – Like Izuku saw the Quirked as injured animals that needed someone to look after them. Even if his intentions were as pure as gold, it didn't change the fact that irritation followed every single save he attempted. Still, Katsuki stood by him, because not only was he the best friend that he had, he owed him that much.

And by standing by him, he knew better than anyone.

He smirked, and folded his arms. "He's gonna be fine. Just sit back and enjoy the fight. Besides, get in there now, and you're only gonna get yourself hurt."

"Oof!" The sound of a smack recalled the blond and the pink-haired teenagers attention to the fight, if one could even call it that.

Yet another solid strike landed right into Izuku's gut, knocking all of the air straight out of him. His eyes shot wide open, and every ounce of strength that he had seemed to leave his body along with the oxygen. It hurt. Everything hurt. His hands, scratched and bruised from the few hits he had landed, against skin as solid as rock. His cheeks, and his head, all shaken by being knocked around. His legs, suffering from similar effects as his hands.

How long had the fight been going on? He hadn't been keeping track.

In a brief moment, before his head was knocked aside again by another punch, he managed to glance over Monoma's shoulder. Kirishima was smirking. No surprises there.

But no one else seemed to be.

Kaminari, Yaoyorozu and Mineta all had clear looks of discomfort on their faces. Wide eyes, slightly ajar mouths, hands over their chests and around their necks. Balled up into fists for some. Gritted teeth for others.

And behind them, there were even more of those faces and expressions.

Expressions of shock. Expressions of fear. Expressions of horror.

Exposing a Quirkless spy – That was one thing.

Brutally beating someone down in such a way, with such brutal manner, someone who couldn't even fight back fairly?

That wasn't a fight.

Another slug fell into the side of Izuku's face. One that he wasn't able to stand up to. He was thrown right onto the ground, and fell flat on his face.

There was a significant lack of blood, surprisingly. Most of the strikes seemed to be forming bruises. And lumps. A few cuts. Nothing major. The pain though, was not something that was lacking. There was plenty of that, all over. Enough to make his muscles ache. Yet it was clear, with how he struggled, and how his limbs shook as he tried to put weight into them, that he wasn't going to stay down. He was like a warrior, who needed his sense of honour to be satisfied.

It was pointless. A fight that wasn't going to end because both sides were too stubborn to just stop. One side, unwilling to surrender. The other, unwilling to just stop, even when it had won.

"Kirishima… You don't think that's enough?" Izuku heard Kaminari ask. "He's had enough."

There wasn't an answer. Kirishima just continued to glare at Izuku. The smirk that was on his face a few minutes ago was gone now. In its place, only a look of sternness resided. The same could be said about Monoma as well. No victorious grins, no smug self-assured satisfaction. Just a look of confusion and non-understanding.

There was nothing left. Nothing more for either side to prove. The victor here should have been clear. He hadn't suffered a single hit, and yet Midoriya was stood opposite him, black and blue, cuts and blood from his mouth and a single drip from his nose. But he wasn't backing down.

And no order to stop came.

Mina held her breath.

"What's wrong?" The smallest hint of laughter came out of Izuku's mouth. His torso and arms limped by his side, seemingly not even having the energy to keep himself upright. It almost made him seem demented. Like a corpse that retained its ability to walk like a biped, even though he was very much alive. "You tired?" Another amused witticism came, hurled from Izuku's mouth.

To the crowd, it looked like he'd lost his mind. He was injured. He looked like he'd been the victim of a Quirkless purist attack, and been made to stagger his way back home. So many people who saw him recognized the sight of someone who had suffered such a fate. They saw the blood and they saw the bruises. The difference though, was that he was somehow laughing.

What was so funny?

Outsiders could only speculate. The loss of blood was making him loopy, or maybe his brain had been rattled around inside his skull. Maybe the Hardening strikes had been a lot harder than they had first appeared. Maybe he was punch-drunk, or outright delirious. Or maybe he really was just absolutely crazy. No matter what the reason was though, Izuku's chuckles were unnerving. Unsettling.

And Mina wasn't doing any better than them.

"Stop it!" The sight was one that she found so harmful, it made every cell in her body burn up and want to cry. Nothing was harder than just standing there, and not running out there to hug him, and force him to stop this madness. She didn't care what point he was trying to make. She didn't care how badly it looked, or hurt their cause.

He didn't deserve this treatment. He didn't deserve what was happening to him right now, even if it was all his idea. Even if he was guilty of all the things that Kirishima accused him of, and more, he didn't deserve this.

Watching this happen, for what? What would this do for anyone? Why was he doing this? Why couldn't she go out there and make him stop?

Every one of his laughs, made her feel like her heart was breaking just that little bit more. Why was this happening to him? Why? "Leave him alone! Stop it!"

Tears ran down her eyes. This was killing her. Were it not for Katsuki's firm grip on her, she would be there, right now. It made her want to scream, to tear herself away no matter the consequences. She wanted to hold him. Tell him that he didn't need to go this far.

"K…Kirishima, I don't…" Yaoyorozu didn't seem to be able to find her words. They were lost in her throat as they tried to escape and form.

All around him, Izuku could see people thinking, and articulating the reasons for his laughter. Delirium. Insanity. Blood loss, or plain insanity. And the fact that they didn't know just seemed to make him laugh more, which ended up bring around a repeating cycle of amusement and hilarity as far as he was concerned. Because all of them were wrong.

It wasn't any of those reasons.

It was because it was now at four minutes, forty seconds.

Twenty to go.

He was laughing because it was time.

"What's wrong?" He asked, making sure that his smirk could be seen by all he faced. "Aren't you going to attack me?"

Four minutes, forty-five.

The Copy Quirk user's face twitched. Was this guy seriously asking for more? Was he that desperate to keep getting his ass kicked? Did he think that this was fun? That this was all some sort of massive joke?

Anger swiftly followed. Was this just some kind of game to him? Was that why he had dragged everyone here? What sort of messed up game even was this?

Logic was gone from Monoma's thinking, and Izuku could see it evaporate from his mind in the many details. His twitch, his frown, his glare – It all showed the signs of someone who wasn't in their right mind, forming up their own conceptions and wild theories in their own head. After dealing with the Quirkless for so long, he had learned to recognize the look.

Something similar to Kirishima had no doubt happened to Monoma. Izuku couldn't claim to know Monoma even slightly close to well enough to even hazard a guess as to what had befallen him. His hatred towards the Quirkless was so vicious, so personal, that he was letting himself be used as an attack dog, without complaint.

Four forty-five.

It almost made Izuku feel bad.

"Kirishima, this is enough." The Electrification Quirk user seemed to speak with more rigidness. Had he lost his nerve completely now? "Monoma. Monoma! That's enough! It's - "

Four fifty.

"Well, if you're not going to come to me." Izuku grinned. Suddenly, his body felt lighter, and readier to brawl than he had ever been at the start. Perhaps it was the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins, giving him the surge of strength that he needed. Or maybe it was just more of the sheer determination that had made him keep getting up after being knocked down. Or the knowledge that this was about to end.

Four fifty-five.

"Then I guess I'll have to come to you."

Izuku charged. The distance between he and Monoma was small, maybe only two meters, and he traversed that in less than a second. It took another second for Monoma to react, activating his copied Hardening, and throwing another punch towards his opponent.

This time, however, Izuku didn't allow him to strike where he pleased. This time, he met the strike front on.

Slamming his fist right against Monoma's Hardened fist.

Fifty-Eight.

All of this hinged on a suspicion that came with Monoma's Quirk. Copy allowed Monoma to mimic a Quirk that anyone that he touched had, for at least five minutes – That was information Izuku had gathered when he was studying all of his Yuuei compatriots' Quirks. And he could copy multiple Quirks at once, but was unable to use more than one at any one time. And right now, the Quirk he was using was Hardening.

Was Monoma keeping track of the time? And if he was, would he stop utilizing his Quirk during this exchange? Or would he continue to use it by instinct? Or would he even notice that his Copying had worn off?

He clearly hadn't been using any of his strikes to detect if Izuku was carrying a Quirk – Which only served to prove that this fight had never been about that. Not to Kirishima, and not to Monoma.

But if Monoma's Quirk was activated at the moment his Hardening Copy wore off –

Four fifty-nine.

… What would happen then?

Five minutes had passed since Kirishima and Momoma had shaken hands, and Monoma had Copied Kirishima's Hardening. In compliance with his time limit, the skin around his fist began to soften at a rapid pace, until there was just the soft flesh that came with every other normal Human body on the planet. Hardening was gone.

But Copy wasn't.

There was one incredibly brief moment, where Izuku and Monoma's eyes locked, where there was a look that displayed so much shock, and so much horror on the latter's face, that let the former know immediately that their plan had worked. Confusion, shock, horror and disgust all made their way onto Monoma's face in that brief moment as his brain entered clarity. Not that it lasted long.

Monoma's Copy traced the power that was One For All, and just like Izuku, his inability to control such a devastating power was surmountable. Instantly after the Copying process automatically begun, static charged built their way up all around the fist – And then the arm – That made the trace. Why the newly copied Quirk seemed to focus itself there was unclear – Because that was where Copy had been activated, and somehow that translated into One For All being focused there too?

Why didn't matter.

With barely even half a second to stop himself, or anyone else, ending up as a red smear across the back of the room, Izuku pushed the Copy Quirk users arm aside, so his hand went to face the leftmost wall. The sudden blast of energy – Enormous in its magnitude – Erupted straight from the movement, forcing the power to activate at full power. Like a gun's trigger accidentally pulled. Only with far more destruction involved.

Akin to a tank shell, the sheer power that shot from Monoma's arm shattered against the wall, tearing through it like it was a piece of paper, and obliterating an enormous hole in the concrete. Unlike Izuku, Monoma didn't have even the slightest grasp on the power of One For All, and the shock-wave that the copied power released was easily that of 100%. Dust and scattered sharps of concrete pelted the crowd, Izuku, and everyone around them as they moved to protect their faces and eyes from the damage. One wall however, wasn't even close enough to stop the power of One For All.

It wasn't until the smoke had all cleared up, that anyone would learn it had destroyed nearly every single wall in the enter training barracks.

Pain hadn't managed to send its message up to Monoma's brain. There was still a great too many things that were in his mind before that would get there. It was an experience Izuku was familiar with – The feeling of not feeling any pain, even when he knew that he should have been in abject agony. That moment of absolute nothingness, followed by acknowledgement – And then a feeling of having ones arm filled up to the very brink with needles and knives.

"Don't worry." He said to Monoma, who just looked at him with wide eyes, yet with no emotion. Given the predicament he found himself in, it wasn't much of a surprise. "I didn't have good control of it either at first."

One For All activated within his own veins, and in one right hook swipe, Izuku slammed Monoma's head against the ground with 5% Full Cowl. His 1B opponent was unconscious the second his head hit the floor. It wasn't often that someone could knock out another person like that, and claim it to be an act of mercy.

But this way, Monoma wouldn't have to deal with the crippling pain of his bones being ground up into dust. Even if he was going to wind up with a few scars.

Silence was the king for what felt like an hour, as absolutely nothing except the static charged that rippled off of Izuku's body dared to move. His own heavy breathing coupled the static to make the only noise. Everyone else was as still as stone, and equally as silent.

Not only had they seen One For All, they had seen its power. They had seen just what it was that Izuku kept within his body. What it was that he hadn't been able to risk showing them. For those in 1A, it was a moment in which abject disgust and horror gripped nearly every single one of them. As Izuku had known it would.

He was innocent. He'd been telling them the truth this entire time. As difficult as it was to believe, he had… Inherited a Quirk, as opposed to being born to develop one.

And in response, they had hounded him. Harassed him from day one.

Had that been what Izuku had wanted to show them? To beat it through even the toughest skull there just how wrong they were?

Of course not.

Katsuki knew what Izuku had been doing from the moment this all started. He understood it all perfectly – At least he felt he did.

To Izuku, the act of discrimination was one that held little to no substance, had no logic to it, and was something that he held in mass amounts of contempt, even if it was a completely understandable initial response in a world filled up with superpowers. And It was something that he opposed in absolutely every single incarnation. It was baseless, it was stupid, and it didn't have any justification. Prejudice, he decided, was always the step on the road to that act, and he fought that too. But he lived in a world where prejudicial fear was the norm. An age of evolution was the world in which he found himself, and both sides were terrified of the other. So gripped in fear to the point of irrationality, that they would let their imaginations take over, and create enemies where none existed.

And that was always something led to violence. Pointless violence in which one side attacked the other. Like the many unprovoked attacks on Quirked people in the streets.

It created the sense that the Quirked were the victims, certainly in their eyes. And they were, without question, the victims of a horrible injustice.

But to some, it meant they were above it. That they could utilize the same methodology as the people that attacked them. That they could – And indeed, should – Attack and harass innocent Quirkless, because their group did it first.

So Izuku had set out to show them how wrong that mentality was. How much it could lead to the destruction of their ideals. How much it could harm them in the long run.

By initiating random attacks, they were quite possibly attacking the people who wanted to help them. They were turning support for themselves away because of their barbarism. They were alienating even their own allies and fellow Quirked.

Izuku had been their target from day one – Someone who the Toe Test identified as Quirkless. An easy target, ripe for the hating. Even though they were attacking maybe the only Quirkless person in the known universe who was willing to go so far as to throw his own life away just to help them.

All because their prejudices ruled over them.

Unbeknownst to Katsuki though, he was only about half right. At least for why Izuku had done this. The other half was something only Izuku knew.

The One For All holder stood up, and looked around. Back towards Katsuki and Mina. He didn't know what to expect. Smiles. Looks of terror. Really, he didn't know what it was that he was going to see. And that prospect did actually scare him.

"Behind you!"

He wasn't able to react, before he felt his throat being clamped down on by a hand grip, and his body shoved against the wall with a sharp thud.

"How the hell did you do that?!"

Hardening slammed itself against Izuku's chest, as Kirishima's blood red eyes glared right into his green ones. His expression was one of a vicious maniac, furious and confused by what he had just witnessed. Something he couldn't believe. Or refused to.

"K-Kirishima!" Someone from behind him called.

"Let him go!"

"Enough!"

"Shut up!" He screamed at them, slamming his elbow against Izuku's chest again. "Tell me how you managed it!"

"Akk!"

"Fucking red haired prick!"

"This was a setup, wasn't it?!" Desperation and denial. "This – This is a trick! Tell me how you did it!"

"There's no trick…"

"Don't lie to me! We all saw the Toe Test! We all saw it! You're Quirkless! There – There's someone else who did that! Someone who – Someone who used their Quirk to make it look like you beat Monoma, isn't there?! That's' what happened, isn't it!"

Refusal. An absolute refusal to accept what was right in front of his eyes. It was the mark of people who refused to accept reality. Who didn't like what reality had to say. Kirishima refused this, because it meant he was wrong.

And he couldn't be wrong.

Because if he was wrong, who did he get to blame? Izuku had wished that it hadn't come to this. But there was no getting around it anymore. Logic wasn't going to work on Kirishima. He was too devoted to this. So he couldn't appeal to him, using logic, or using emotion.

Force was the only thing that he understood.

People were rushing to get between Kirishima and him. So he had to do this right now.

"Oh, for God's sake." He muttered, and then activated One For All Full Cowling throughout his body.

One arm of his was free, with which he used to reach out, and grab Kirishima by the collar. The veins in his own face glowed red as the power entered his body. And he flung every ounce of it straight into his next attack.

A solid, crisp headbutt, right to the forehead.

In the final moment, Kirishima's Hardening activated itself, purely on instinct, around his head. The result was that Izuku suffered a nasty cut, right across his forehead, above his right eye. He couldn't care less about it though – It didn't even hurt. The impact had been the same.

The impact being Kirishima, knocked right off of his feet, and thrown onto the floor. The strike had been intensely powerful, even if it was only 5%. It was more than enough to get the point across, especially against someone who seemed to refuse, down to his very core, that the person before him was Quirkless.

Now that he'd felt the power first hand, would he be able to claim the same?

"For fucks sake, Kirishima!"

The moment Kirishima hit the ground was the moment Izuku yelled, holding nothing back. There was venom, and viciousness in every syllable. Anger he had kept repressed towards the guy was now allowed to bubble to the surface.

"What the hell is it going to take for you to get it into your skull that I'm on your side?!"

People stopped moving.

"What do you want from me?!" Izuku shouted. Blood dripped form his cut, and over his left eye, not that he cared. "I've done everything in my power to try to show you that I'm on your side from day one! I've put up with your crap, I helped get rid of those bikers, I gave you every benefit of every doubt that I could! I've done nothing to you but been as amicable as I can be, and it's not enough for you! What do you want?!"

Not even Katsuki remembered hearing Izuku shout with such a ferocity. When Izuku got mad, it generally meant that one wanted to stay out of his way, but this was a whole new level.

"Y-You're Quirkless!" Kirishima protested, though it seemed much weaker than his normal level of ferocity. "We – We all saw – "

"Oh give me a break!" The black-haired boy shouted. "Can you just – For one Goddamn second – Open your eyes?! Your skin turns as hard as rock! Mina shoots Acid from her skin! Kacchan creates explosions! Todoroki makes both fire and ice! Is it really that fucking difficult to even consider the possibility that just maybe – Just maybe?! – There are Quirks that can be transferred from one person to another?! Is that outside the realms of possibility to you?!"

No answer came. Probably the most surprising thing that had happened all day – Kirishima was keeping his mouth shut.

"Of course its possible! We don't know a single thing about Quirks! You know that better than I do – You've got a Quirk you were born with for Gods sake! But you already set out the rules inside your head! This fight didn't have anything to do with me being a Quirkless spy, and you damn well know it! This had everything to do with your personal vendetta against the Quirkless!"

Izuku threw open his arms.

"Look around you, Kirishima! Half of our class didn't think you should do something like this! Half of them didn't even think I was a threat to them, but you preyed on the people who were scared, who were terrified for whatever reason, and convinced them to follow you on this! If this was about getting me out of the school, you would have taken this straight to the headmaster! You would have taken it to the security forces – You would have taken it to someone who could have at least confirmed your suspicions, or given them even a single iota of credibility! But you refused to, and cooked up this little idea in your head to have Monoma copy my non-existent Quirk – You wanted a fight! You wanted an excuse, but you wouldn't fight me yourself, because then there'd be no way to prove I was Quirkless – That's why you had Monoma fight me, but let him copy your Quirk! You wanted him to beat me senseless! That's all this was about!"

With every single bit of strength that was in his throat, he yelled,

"You're a fucking hypocrite, Kirishima! You go on, and on, and on, and on about how the Quirkless keep assaulting the Quirked, and the minute you think you've got even a single shred of evidence to use against someone who's Quirkless, you send your attack dogs right after me! What is the difference here?! Tell me!"

The only sound after that was the sound of Izuku's ragged breathing. He had just unleashed half a year's worth of unrepentant fury and repressed anger all out at once. Anger Izuku hadn't even been aware that he had.

He had done what his group of friends had wanted from the beginning. He had called out Kirishima without even the slightest hint of holding back. There were another million things that could be said, but Izuku had said what little needed to be said, with such emotion and vigor, that there really wasn't anything else to say. The nail had been hit squarely on the head.

And it left Izuku exhausted.

This was why he had hidden his Quirk for so long. Because he felt that one day, just maybe, something like this would happen. If such a thing happened, he wanted people to see just how wrong they were. And that was going to need a big exclamation mark at the end, to make his point.

If nothing else, he'd certainly made that. It was logic that made sense only to him… But it was enough.

He heard someone. Something about an infirmary. He heard movement, but didn't turn his head. HE didn't look away from Kirishima, who was just staring wide eyed at him. For the first time, Izuku found himself fully unable to comprehend Kirishima in that moment.

A thought that followed him, as he realized that he was falling to the floor.

And a thought that followed him as everything went black.

Finally, the confrontation that I've been building up this entire story has happened, and I'm…. Kind of satisfied with it. It's a hectic chapter, but I think that kind of adds to the confusion of the situation. It's a difficult balance to get right, but I've had this idea for Kirishima and Monoma from the get-go, and I'm glad to have finally implemented it! Right about now, we're into what I call Act two of The First Generation – Where the elements that are really worth exploring to me will be explored. Get hyped for it!