Well, we went and did it. Torchbearer has officially broken 1,000 Follows. I just don't have the words to describe how amazing this is, probably partially because I currently have a head cold that's making me a bit fuzzy. That's also why this week's chapter is shorter than usual. Sorry about that.

Review time:

angelMwings, Engineer of Epicness, origamishishou, Guest: People catching the Mr Incredible reference.

Shade11224: I will neither ignore this nor brush it off. It deserves a proper response. Firstly, you are arguing that a world that runs on anime logic makes no sense. I agree completely. You know what else doesn't make sense? A fifteen year-old being able to dead-lift a car after only ten months of training, yet here we are. Toughness and physical strength are NOT the same thing. As anyone who has taken a nasty hit to the head can tell you (hi there) there is a huge mental aspect to staying standing after taking a hit that hurts. I.e., guts is actually a thing that matters and Kirishima has this in spades.

Additionally, you understand far less about Momo, and indeed fighting in general, than you claim. If you understood fighting at all, you would understand that speed and technique trump raw power any day. Go on Youtube and watch bodybuilders or wrestlers fight boxers or MMA fighters sometime. Even if we ignore this for a moment, Momo, both here and in canon, placed number one in the Quirk Assessment, rendering your argument about her not being in peak physical form null and void. She clearly knows how to balance her training and her diet in order to use her Quirk efficiently, as any intelligent person would. Your point about the so-called "typical fit male teen" is pure ignorance. As someone who was seriously involved in martial arts as a "fit male teen" I can tell you one-hundred percent that I would never have wanted to fight the master's wife. That little old lady would have destroyed me.

To cap this off, I would never call canon Izuku "weak" by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed, I layed out Torchbearer Izuku's reasons for placing where he did both in the Quirk Assessment and in Fight Club. Also, we have no evidence that canon Kirishima only started training after the middle school incident. It is possible, nay probable, that he simply ramped it up. Besides, if it comes to that then I need simply state the obvious: This is not canon Kirishima.

I do not mean to say that your argument holds no merit. It is a solid argument at its core, but you didn't do your homework when you made your points. C-minus.

Jack Inqu: I too enjoy thinking about how various Quirks can change people's everyday lives. Tooru is certainly an excellent example of this.

bhennen: We'll have to see with Monoma. It all depends on the situation with him. Obviously his Quirk would be useless against someone like Eraserhead for example. 1-A will certainly develop in different ways than in canon, even if there are similarities.

Mrguy22594: It was not. I always intended to have them come back to USJ. I did enjoy that OVA though.

Death of Snipers: I agree, which is why I did it XD I also agree that Dark Shadow would not be useless in such a situation, but neither would he have enough range to do all that much. Remember that USJ is also brightly-lit, so the lighting conditions are less favorable than, say, the Summer Camp battle when it was at least nighttime. As for Momo, she probably did that after getting over the initial shock and I just didn't show it. Feel free to make that canon.

Midnight Angels Say GoodNight: I do not currently have any shipping plans for Shoji, though this could be subject to change. I had a similar thought as to you and decided that in an alternate continuity he is a raging sex god (remember, he can swap his hands out for any body part), but not this one. I too enjoy Tooru and Shoto's interactions.

D3lph0xL0v3r: Shout-out for the bunch of reviews! It's always cool to see people's thoughts as they go through the fic.

The 0bservanc3: No worries, you're not being charged late fees XD I enjoy going in-depth with things like Tooru's Quirk. I just find it legitimately interesting. Shoto's training was indeed intense. We'll probably see a bit of it eventually. The eye-contact thing will be addressed in the future, rest assured. As for the failures of the Heroes thing, I do believe that is how a veteran such as All Might would see things, though after so long he has most likely developed some coping mechanisms. I agree with the sentiment that Shoji is often underused.

You are correct about All Might's time limit, though I state in Chapter nineteen that it is more like 2 hours 15 mins as of right now. This is partly due to natural degradation and partly due to him going full-power against Nomu. HUC is indeed utilized for Hero Academy work, though they are usually reserved for third-years in my canon. I would imagine that there is a company that specializes in making things like the Faux Civilians. There would be a market for that, I'd think.

The methods used to determine if/how much is deducted from a Pro's pay for collateral damage is iffy at best. I think that, with a few exceptions, that will fall under the category of "it's not fun to think about so I won't think about it that much." We honestly haven't seen much of this in canon which makes me think that the author has similar thoughts on the matter. Yaomomo's encyclopedia is indeed unique. It is made to include the information that is useful for her, such as molecular composition. As for Golden Week, I'll have to do more research into that to see what exactly it entails.

grahamgarrett_powerofanime, sremiehzla, avidreaded, uchihaNaruto247, Reverseflash, Voltrike92, Draxsis Felhunter, MIKE202303, Xx15PinstripesxX, Dark Murcielago, ILiekFishes, NPGamer11, Engineer of Epicness, Sentinel07, SeanHicks4, Ghost 501 and everyone else: thank you for your support and I hope that you continue to enjoy!

Now, back to where we left off last time! Sorry again for the short chapter. I'mma go to sleep now.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Prometheus

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Now, now, Eraserhead, I'm sure there's a valid explanation for this. Besides, it all worked out in the end, right? That is, except for the Downpour Zone."

"Thirteen, if he had possessed even the slightest amount of rationality, he would have realized that neither of us had someone like Yaoyorozu in our groups. He would have then questioned exactly how they were supposed to have rescued their Faux Civilians if they had zero access to any form of basic equipment."

Toshinori Yagi, currently in his muscle form, suddenly felt about thirty years younger. It was as though he were a young man again watching his master and Gran Torino debate the best way to punish him for his most recent blunder.

His group had made it through the Ruins Zone and Landslide Zone without incident, though they were certainly still miffed at him for his admittedly spectacular failure in the Downpour Zone. They had made their way to the central plaza as instructed and once the class was all together again, Toshinori had pulled Aizawa and Thirteen aside to pick their brains a little. He had explained the judgement calls he had made as well as the reasons for them and asked for feedback from his colleagues.

What he had not expected was for Aizawa's eye to start twitching and for Thirteen to be struck completely dumb.

"I beg your pardon," Toshinori piped up, desperate to gain some semblance of understanding as to just what he had apparently missed, "but do you mean to say that there was equipment provided for the students?"

Aizawa, who looked like he was about ready to start foaming at the mouth, gestured for Thirteen to explain.

"You see, All Might," Thirteen began with the air of someone who was trying to break bad news as gently as possible, "each zone has a cache of equipment by the entrance that is designed to facilitate exactly the sorts of training exercises that we have been performing today. These are designed to blend in with the environment in order to add realism, but they are all very simple to find once you know about them."

Toshinori opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to find a way to bring up the fact that he did not, in fact, know about these equipment caches without sounding like a complete moron. Aizawa took the matter out of his hands when he suddenly facepalmed, taking a moment to groan in pain before he started speaking.

"Thirteen, he wasn't at the briefing, remember?"

"Briefing?" Toshinori was getting more and more confused, "When was this?"

"Last Wednesday, before class." Thirteen supplied, "At that time every teacher was informed about various things within USJ, the supply caches included. We hold such meetings a few times a year when I move things around in here a bit to keep it fresh. You were not there because, ah…"

"Because you were busy doing other Heroes' jobs for them." Aizawa bluntly concluded.

And burning through my transformation time.

Aizawa had not made the statement outright, but Toshinori caught the unsaid reprimand just fine. He tactfully did not bring this topic up himself either, as he knew for a fact that two of his students had enhanced hearing and a third was invisible.

Wait…that meant that his students were probably listening to him getting chewed out.

Well, he supposed that he deserved it after the Downpour Zone and the unused equipment and the-

"Wait a moment!" Toshinori suddenly remembered, "What about the child in the Conflagration Zone?"

"Oh, that?" Thirteen had not seemed the slightest bit surprised when he brought it up earlier, so it had slipped Toshinori's mind momentarily, but it had never actually been explained, "The Faux Civilians are programmed to reset either in the most recently-used facility or the next-closest one. In the Conflagration Zone in particular, different buildings are assigned different difficulty levels. My guess would be that the building in question was level two or three. Usually I don't throw children into the mix until second-year or perhaps as a wild-card for first-year finals."

"It was fortunate that it was Midoriya who got hit with that." Aizawa reflected, "His costume and Quirk are tailor-made for the Conflagration Zone. It may all be supervised but we shouldn't forget that there's an element of real danger. You can't fake a burning building, after all."

T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r

"Wait, you guys went through each of those venues without using the equipment?!" Jiro demanded incredulously from where she was eavesdropping on the teacher's conversation with the aid of her Quirk.

"W-well," Izuku was getting flustered from all of the attention his group was getting, "it's not like we didn't have any equipment. Yaoyorozu-san was kind enough to provide us with some essentials."

"Tell the whole story, Deku." Kacchan interjected, "We got bonus points if we went in without any extra equipment and I can tell you all right now, there's two people here that never used a single piece outside of their own shit."

"Bet we can all guess who one of them was eh, Bakubro?" Kirishima grinned.

"No, actually." Kacchan shrugged, "I used a gas mask for the Conflagration Zone. Didn't feel like inhaling all that smoke."

"Wow, that was gonna be my first guess too." Kaminari stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Ooh, ooh!" Hagakure's shoes were bouncing up and down while one of her gloves waved wildly in the air, "Can I say one of them? Can I?" without waiting for permission she presented Todoroki to the onlookers, "Ta-dah! It was Todo! He just used his ice to rescue every single one of his targets except for the one from the Downpour Zone but we'renotgonnatalkaboutthatbecauseitwasatotaldisaster."

"Well, no surprises there." Ashido commented.

"Indeed." Iida wiped his brow, having removed his helmet, "I would hazard a guess that the other was Yaoyorozu-san, then? It stands to reason that, as her Quirk allows her to produce nearly any equipment that she would require, that she would qualify."

"You're correct, Iida-san." Yaoyorozu smiled a bit sheepishly, "It really does feel like a technicality though; I was still using equipment, it was just of my own making."

"I mean," Uraraka said thoughtfully, "if you're gonna think about it that way, then isn't the Hero system just one big technicality?"

"Uraraka-san!" Iida burst out seemingly on reflex, "That is an incredibly dangerous way of thinking! Why, it almost makes you sound like a Vigilante!"

"That's what I'm talking about though!" Uraraka insisted, "Think about it: if a Hero saves someone and a Vigilante saves someone, then what's the difference?"

"Well," Izuku saw where she was going and decided to keep the ball rolling, "assuming they both used their Quirks to do so, then the actions of the Vigilante would have been illegal because they didn't have a Hero License."

"Right! See? Technicality." Uraraka shrugged, "At the end of the day, they both saved someone. They might even have stopped a Villain to do it, but one of them gets praised while the other gets arrested."

"By that logic, laws in general are nothing more than technicalities, Uraraka-san." Tokoyami stated, "We must be careful how we view things. After all, if the ends justify the means no matter the case then you must consider murder to be acceptable, no? What better way to ensure that a Villain never harms another soul?"

"Sometimes Heroes aren't given a choice." Kacchan pointed out.

"Yeah, but you know that's not what she was laying down." Jiro debated, "You're taking her beat and remixing it."

"There is one key point in all of this that you're failing to consider." Todoroki piped up, much to everyone's surprise, "Those who become licensed, Pro Heroes, in other words, have one more key difference between them and everyone else: they get paid for their services. They have the financial ability to treat Heroism as a full-time occupation."

"That's right!" Izuku seconded, "The first generation of Heroes were technically Vigilantes since there wasn't a legal system in place to regulate their activities yet. This also meant that there was no way for them go make money doing it unless they were being paid under the table by a private citizen or something. The concept of being a full-time Hero just wasn't feasible unless you were independently wealthy or had someone else covering your living expenses."

"Indeed." Iida continued, "The government wisely saw the value in the idea of institutionalized Heroism and so they hand-picked who they saw as the most desirable Vigilantes and offered them what essentially amounted to a government sponsorship. They were free to use their Quirks within certain limits in the service of their community. Namely, assisting in disaster relief, search and rescue, patrolling and, of course, fighting against Villains. Unfortunately for many, this also included their former-comrades in the form of those Vigilantes who had not been sponsored."

"Yeah, it sucked to be those guys." Kacchan pointed out, "There weren't any legal grey-areas to this: either you were government-sponsored or you weren't. If you weren't, then any Quirk usage was considered illegal, whether it was Heroic or not. Legally, you were just as much a Villain as, well, the Villains. The fucked-up thing about this was that it forced a lot of Vigilantes into becoming full-on Villains, especially the ones who were a bit more extreme in their treatment of justice as they saw it. There were more than a few who, just like Birdman said, saw murder as the ideal way to cleanse the world of Villainy. 'Burn away the corruption and let a clean new world rise from the ashes,' wasn't it?"

"Ah!" Izuku recognized the quote, "That line's credited to Prometheus, the first recorded holder of a Fire Quirk!"

"Prometheus, the one who brought fire down to mankind, huh…" Yaoyorozu said almost to herself, "A fitting name, since he also became credited as the first Supervillain."

"There's some debate as to whether he chose that name himself or if it was given to him by others later." Izuku explained, "It's generally accepted that he was originally a Vigilante, but turned to Villainy when his former comrades, now government-sponsored Heroes, were given orders to hunt him down and arrest him. His ideology was just too violent to mesh with modern society."

"There's one thing I don't get though." Kaminari raised his hand from his place in the semi-circle of students that had developed in front of the speakers providing this impromptu history lesson, "Yaomomo said that this guy was the first Supervillain, right? Well, why him? What's the difference between a Villain and a Supervillain anyway? They're all Villains at the end of the day, aren't they?"

"That's a stupid question, Prez." Kacchan scoffed, "By that logic you'd say that All Might is just another Hero, same as someone like, I dunno, Backdraft, Death Arms or Manual, right? No fucking way. He's in a class all his own compared to them. In other words, he's a Superhero. Get it?"

"So," Kirishima crossed his arms, looking intrigued, "you're saying that, way back when, this guy was in a league of his own among Villains. He must have been legit powerful then, yeah?"

"Powerful enough to make his way into the history books, Ribbit." Tsuyu pointed out, "Though, I don't think it was just about that. The fact that he's both the first recorded Fire Quirk holder as well as the first Supervillain seems like kind of a big coincidence, doesn't it?"

"It does indeed, Asui, my girl." All Might, Aizawa and Thirteen had joined the conversation, "In fact, Fire Quirks had quite a bit of stigma associated with them for a while, thanks in no small part to Prometheus. It only really died out with my generation, so it's not surprising that kids your age don't really know about it."

"You talk like you're an old man, All Might-sensei." Ashido giggled, "How old are you anyway?"

"Hmm? I shall be fifty in a couple months."

"He's…older than I thought." Hagakure stage-whispered.

Izuku privately agreed. He had thought that All Might was in his forties, but had not realized that the man was pushing fifty! It was kind of like how Kacchan was almost always the oldest student in their year even though he didn't look it. His birthday was in mid-April after all.

What day was it again? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…April eighteenth.

Wait, eighteenth?!

Oh, shit.

Kacchan's birthday was in two days and Izuku had completely forgotten. This was bad. This was very bad. He needed to come up with something! He usually started planning what he was going to do at least a week or two in advance so that he could cycle through ideas and work things out with his mom and Mitsuki. Two days…he couldn't plan something in two days!

Help. He needed help. Who could he ask?

Wait. Idea. That could work. Not now though. After class.

T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r

You have created the group: Emergency! Panic Mode! Added 4 members.

All Might: Everyone! This is bad! I need your help!

Glasses: Midoriya-san! What has happened?!

Star: Deku-kun are you okay?!

Octopus: What can we do?

Potato: WHERE IS CRIME?!

All Might: Kacchan's birthday is on Saturday and I forgot and I have no idea what to do pleasehelpme!

Star: Oh no!

Potato: wait, is this that big a deal? i forget friends' birthdays all the time.

Star: This is different, Kirishima-san! They've been friends for, like, EVER. Total besties!

Octopus: When you put it that way, this does sound serious.

Glasses: I concur. What manner of aid do you require, Midoriya-san?

All Might: Well, I don't know what to do for him. Usually I take some time to figure out something fun to do and organize it with our moms, but there's no time for that this year! I need…ideas? Organizational help?

Potato: i want in.

All Might: What?

Potato: whatever u guys are doing. i wanna hang.

Star: That's a good idea! We should all do something for Bakugo-san together!

Glasses: A capital idea!

All Might: I don't want to impose on you guys…

Octopus: Midoriya-san, Bakugo-san is our friend too. Of course we would want to be involved.

Potato: yeah, right?

Potato: brb getting advice from the expert.

Glasses: An expert? On what?

Star: Birthdays?

All Might: Did Kirishima-san mention knowing someone like that?

Potato: kk so first thing we need is to figure out a budget and decide on some possible activities.

All Might: Well, Kacchan likes spicy food, so each year I always try to incorporate that somehow.

Star: I'm sure I can figure out an affordable restaurant that has some good spicy stuff!

Potato: can't go wrong with a movie. i'll check what's playing. expert suggests arcade. u can kill time there without spending too much if money becomes an issue.

Octopus: I can keep a spare eye on the local newsfeeds just in case there is any Hero activity. Catching a live incident would be both educational and entertaining while also being free.

Glasses: I confess to not being one who often goes out on the town, so I will simply provide what funding I am able to. Do you think about 20,000 yen would help?

Star: a;sdlkd;lkasdmvs;lk

Potato: holy shit dude

Glasses: What? Is it too little? I suppose I could ask for an advance on my allowance.

Star: NO

Star: Iida-san…that's just way too generous. You don't have to give that much.

All Might: Seriously! That's just…

Octopus: It is a significant amount considering the situation.

Glasses: Ah, I see. I did not mean to…flaunt. Nevertheless, as I am contributing precious little to the overall plan, I feel that it is only right that I at least contribute financially. I would sooner have money not be a concern for our plans.

All Might: If that's how you feel, then thank you, Iida-san. We will accept your contribution. In fact, why don't we put Uraraka-san in charge of budgeting? She knows the area and has a good idea of how much things cost, since she lives on her own.

Potato: for real? i didn't know that. i'm good with that. i can probably pitch in about 3,500 yen.

Octopus: A good idea. I can contribute 3,000.

All Might: I can do 3,000 too.

Star: If that's what you want, Deku-kun, then sure, I'll handle the budget! Though…I can't contribute that much. Maybe…1,500 yen? I'm sorry.

All Might: Don't worry about it, Uraraka-san. This isn't a contest.

Glasses: Indeed! Do not get yourself down over such a trivial matter.

Potato: ^

Octopus: I concur.

Star: Thanks guys. Well, if we add this up then we have a total of 31,000 yen, which breaks down to 5,000 yen and change for each of us and Bakugo-san. I don't think we'll have any issues buying movie tickets and lunch with that! We should even have a little bit left over for the arcade!

All Might: That's great! Tell you what, each of you figure out a good place for your suggestion and get back to me. I'll work up a schedule for us. That means Uraraka-san for lunch and Kirishima-san for the movie and the arcade. Shoji-san's thing will kind of be on-the-fly.

Potato: roger that boss-man.

Star: I'll let you know, Deku-kun!

Izuku slumped back on the couch, letting out a long sigh. It would be alright. He had a plan now. Not for the first time he considered just how thankful he was for his friends.

*vmmm vmmm*

Izuku picked up his phone, expecting another message in the group chat. He was surprised, therefore, to see All Might's number.

"Midoriya, my boy, if you are agreeable, I would like to hold your first extra training session at USJ tomorrow after class. I have secured all of the necessary permissions, so you don't need to worry about that."

If Izuku was being completely honest with himself, he had nearly forgotten about that. He hurriedly responded.

"Yes! I can do that!"

*vmmm vmmm*

"Very good. Make sure to bring your Hero Costume. I will text you with our meeting place tomorrow."

It was, Izuku decided, even more fortunate than he had realized that he had the assistance of his friends in planning Kacchan's birthday.

He was probably going to be extremely tired after the following day, after all.

T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r

Izuku sat in the teacher's lounge, alone and waiting. All Might had informed him that he was wrapping up with a short faculty meeting and would meet him there afterwards.

Excusing himself from his customary trip home with Kacchan and the others had been tricky. In the end, he had managed to convince Kacchan that he was undergoing remedial Quirk training to help him handle the backlash better, which was not altogether untrue. Predictably, he had been asked if his friends could offer their services in some way. He didn't have a good reason to give them and simply said that this was something he felt that he had to do on his own. Kacchan had given him a bit of the evil eye as he left and Uraraka appeared unconvinced, but it was Shoji of all people who had convinced them to leave it alone after extracting a promise from Izuku that he would come to them if he needed anything.

Izuku was honestly getting tired of the half-truths. He knew it was necessary in order to protect All Might's secret and the secret of One For All, but it was a necessity that he cursed nonetheless.

The door opened and All Might entered in his muscle form.

"My apologies for the wait, my boy. The principal may be a genius but he can be rather long-winded at times."

"Oh, no, sir." Izuku shook his head, "From the beginning, you're doing this for my benefit so the least I can do is make sure it doesn't get in the way of anything."

All Might ruffled Izuku's hair as he guided him out the door.

"It wouldn't kill you to be a little bit selfish every now and then, you know?"

"Speak for yourself. Are you sure you're alright to be walking around in your muscle form?"

"I still have some time left today. Besides, I will revert once we board the bus."

Sure enough, All Might did just that before sitting down across the isle from Izuku.

"So, what do you intend to focus on first, my boy?"

Izuku took a moment to consider.

"Well, I think I should spend some time working on controlling my exact output when I've got a full tank. It's really easy to accidentally use too much, especially in the heat of the moment. Plus, I need to get better at gauging exactly how much I have in reserve. Repeatedly expending all of my fuel and then refilling should help with that naturally. I also can't neglect Flame Magnet, so I should practice more on manipulating large amounts of fire at once with it. If I can get to the point where I can simultaneously use Flame Magnet and One For All, then that should increase my repertoire as well."

"In short, you want to start with the basics and improve your overall foundation first. A wise policy."

Izuku grinned.

"Well, I can't take all the credit. This is the same type of thing that you had me doing before, remember? Building myself up so I can use my Quirk without worrying."

All Might let out a bark of laughter that was followed shortly thereafter by a spray of blood.

"Hah…as you say, my boy."

T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r

Izuku stood in front of the now-familiar inferno that comprised the Conflagration Zone. He had done a few warm-up exercises and now he was ready to try something that he had been working on since before he had started at U.A.

Focus the attraction point into the tips of your fingers, but don't cement it there. Keep things loose. Any lapse in concentration and this won't work.

Izuku extended his right hand towards the burning building in front of him and activated Flame Magnet with a middling amount of force. Too little would be pointless, while too much might be too difficult. As desired, a torrent of flames rushed towards him, coalescing into a shapeless blob as he adjusted the strength of the "magnet." By the time the fire was nearly upon him, Izuku had nearly halved the initial force. By virtue of the amount of fire he had summoned, it was still moving at a decent clip.

Time to start phase two.

Izuku brought his arm around in a large, looping motion, turning his body roughly forty-five degrees as he did so. The fire followed his arm's trajectory, circling his body at arm's length. So far, so good, but now was the tricky part.

Keep cool. All you're doing is the same thing, but on the other side and all at once.

With a bit of extra "oomph" of course.

Izuku brought his left hand back to touch the fingertips of his right. In that moment, he cancelled the attraction point on his right hand and activated an identical attraction point on his left.

"Smash!"

He then pushed Flame Magnet up to full power for the instant that it took him to make a violent forehand swipe with his left. At the furthest point of his motion, Izuku cancelled Flame Magnet completely, causing the suddenly-condensed glob of flames to shoot forward and violently dissipate in a reaction that resembled nothing so much as a minor explosion.

The theory behind the technique was simple, even if the technique itself was incredibly difficult to do properly. Izuku would attract fire towards him, condense it using a surge of Flame Magnet at a precise attraction point, accelerate it using One For All, shut off Flame Magnet and let physics do the rest. With nothing holding it together anymore, the fire would expand outwards while maintaining its velocity.

Voila. Poor-man's Explosion. Kacchan would either be impressed or pissed.

The best part was that the technique didn't consume any fuel. In fact, if he timed it right, Izuku could probably let the explosion happen and then devour the resulting fireball. Two birds with one stone.

Hell, in theory he could keep recycling the same fire over and over again as long as he managed to ignite something new each time he used it.

Baby steps.

"I daresay you've just created a new move, my boy." All Might said appreciatively, "Have you thought of a name for it?"

"Well, I could just name it 'Explosion' to annoy Kacchan."

"You could. I would advise against it though."

"I can't very well make it a Smash, since I deliberately keep my usage of One For All to a minimum while using it."

"Try a different angle then, my boy. In what context do you see this move most often being used?"

Izuku thought about that.

Well, it'd be most effective if I've already got fire headed towards me, so it could be a counter to other Fire Quirks? Flame Counter, maybe? No, that's not right. It's not exclusively for that, after all. I'm taking fire and redirecting it back towards its source, so…

"How about 'Reflect Fire?'"

"Hmm…" All Might mused, "'Reflect' for the initial windup and then a quick, sharp 'Fire' for the finish? Yes. Yes, that could work."

"What are you talking about, All Might?"

"My boy, do you know the purpose of naming one's Super Moves?"

"The point…well, it's because it sounds cool and inspires confidence, right? It's for marketing and appeal."

"To an extent, yes, but there is also a far more utilitarian use for it as well." All Might held up a finger, "My boy, are you familiar with the use of mnemonic devices?"

"Those are used to help people remember things, right? Like 'Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally' for the order of operations."

"Correct. Due to the fact that many Super Moves involve a complex series of steps that often need to be carried out instantaneously, learning to associate the name of one's Super Move with those motions can make it easier to carry them out. Often the associated actions align with the name of the move when spoken aloud. For instance, you may have noticed that all of my Smashes have two-word names. Detroit Smash, Oklahoma Smash, etc. This is because they all have two steps to them: wind-up and release."

All Might cocked his fist back "Texas…" and then punched forward with it "Smash! You see, my boy?"

Izuku was beginning to understand.

"I see! So you mean that if I time my movements with the name of the move, then I can eventually learn to do it without thinking!"

"It will be difficult at first." All Might cautioned, "Your first instinct will be to focus entirely on the move and maintain your silence, but you must not do this! You must form the correct habit from the start. Having to break it down and re-learn it later will be far more challenging than just doing it all at the same time from the get-go."

"I understand." Izuku nodded, mouth set in a determined frown. "I'll do my best to learn good habits!"

"Very good, my boy. Well, I can still spare another fifty minutes or so. Why don't you spend the rest of today's session getting that move drilled into your head? I'll give you a minute for the first ten attempts, then fifty seconds, then forty, then thirty and so on. Eventually I want to see you being able to fire Reflect Fire off seamlessly. Left, right, hook, Reflect Fire. Something like that. That's when a move becomes usable in a real fight, you understand? We're going to be switching hands with each attempt too. This should also help to improve your overall control over Flame Magnet."

And there was that All Mightian training from hell that Izuku had missed so much. He wasn't about to complain though; it had worked wonders for him so far, after all.

"Reflect Fire!"

T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r

Izuku wasn't complaining.

He was, however, extremely thirsty and feeling a little crispy around the edges as, while he had suffered no burns during his training, it had gotten very, very hot.

All Might had been pleased with the day's progress. While fifty minutes had not been enough time for Izuku to be able to use Reflect Fire without thinking, he had managed to reduce the necessary "casting" time to three seconds. The mnemonic device had indeed worked wonders.

Now, he just needed to get a drink, take a shower and go over his plans for tomorrow one final time.

No rest for the weary it seemed. Oh well, he would get used to it. Besides, this was a special occasion.

It wasn't every day one's best friend turned sixteen, after all.

Next time: Katsuki's birthday!

My question for you all this time is a simple one: What movie should they take him to see? This doesn't have to be a real movie either. Feel free to invent something like "Killgore Deathmurder Part III: The Deathening" or something. The one I like most will get used and most likely have a short blurb written about it in the chapter of the characters reacting to it.

As always, thank you for reading!