Screeching.

Screaming.

The crash of metal on metal.

The crack of broken glass.

Izuku lunged into action before he even had a moment to consider what action he was meant to take.

It was a simple accident; one car coming to a halt perhaps a little more abrupt than it should have, slipping on something in the road and lunging forward; right into another car's tail, leaving the other spinning out. The woman in front of him was stunned, staring at the oncoming car in total stillness. Green lightning erupted into being around him and his hand wrapped around her upper arm, before his legs kicked off and he pulled her backwards away from the potential disaster. His body twisted with the motion, she staggered some eight feet backwards and fell flat on her butt, while he lunged forward.

He wasn't sure what he was doing. He could see the driver of the impacted car in the seat, the children in the back. There was fear in each of their eyes, fear that made his own spine tingle and his blood roar in his ears. Some he lunged and he planted one hand firm on the car's bumper and the other on the hood and he caught it, body screaming as he pushed back against the momentum. It was a close thing; his foot dug into the concrete sidewalk, ripping it up in a short gouging scar before the car came to a halt of sorts, a shuddering, squeaking halt.

Izuku moved to the side of the car and tried one of the rear passenger doors. Not locked, broken. He grunted and heaved with One for All, ripping it free with the squeal of metal tearing, before reaching inside. The two children were crying, and gently he shushed them. Both were toddlers, sat in car seats, which he unbuckled with one hand each before carefully slipping each child free of the seat.

The woman in the front looked half-conscious, dazed, so Izuku removed the children and gently set them on the ground, beckoning the woman he had pulled away earlier forward. She had long dark hair and remarkably pale skin, perhaps a mutant-type Quirk? Izuku was curious, but duty outweighed curiosity as she came closer.

"Keep an eye on the children please, ma'am." he said, half a conmand and half a request. "I'm going to get the woman out of the car."

The woman nodded frantically, clearly still shocked, and Izuku gently patted her once on the shoulder. The two children were crying, and he smiled at them. It wasn't an All-Might smile; it was an Izuku Midoriya smile, a Deku smile, gentle and subtle, but it was a smile that made them both stop and stare for a moment.

"You don't have to be afraid." he said, shaking his head slowly. "I am here."

He turned and used One for All to lunge to the side of the car, grabbing the driver's-side door and pulling it open with a quick chop of the hand to break the locking mechanism. The woman inside was still dazed, obviously stunned, and Izuku grabbed a tiny pen-light from his pocket quickly.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" he asked, as she groaned quietly. "I need you to stay with me, ma'am. You may have a concussion. If you can hear me and understand me, please stay awake."

He glanced up at the car that incited the entire crash, just in time to see the driver stagger out into the street, bleeding from the head. Dammit. Other cars were slowed, but the flow of traffic hadn't totally stopped. The man was clearly dazed, swaying like a drunkard, and Izuku swallowed before pressing a hand to the woman's shoulder.

"I'll be back as quick as possible, ma'am." he declared, before jumping over the car and taking off in a sprint.

He slid to a halt in front of the man and winced when his ankle, already sore from ripping up four feet of sidewalk, turned against the ground a little funny. He pressed one hand to the man's chest and wrapped another around his waist, pulling him away from the intersection and back towards his car.

"Sir, can you hear me?" he asked, to which the man nodded. "Sir, it's all okay now, but it appears you've suffered a head injury. Your car was badly damaged in the crash and I'm not sure it's safe, so I'm going to get you to stay on the sidewalk. Can you get there yourself?"

The man groaned, but he nodded again.

"The... the bear..." he groaned, blinking slowly as he turned his eyes toward his car. "His bear..."

Izuku swallowed, before releasing the man. He used one hand to signal the cars on his left to stay stopped as he guided the man toward the sidewalk, noting the uncomfortable amount of oil spilling from the wrecked car onto the road. He turned and took off back toward the first car, sprinting wreathed in green lightning before coming to a halt and carefully unbuckling the woman's seat belt. She fell back against her seat with a gentle push, eyes still open and hands scrabbling at his own.

She grabbed his wrists, slowly looking down at him.

"Shinobu..." she groaned. "Hinoka..."

"The children are safe, ma'am." Izuku nodded. "And you're going to be okay too."

He brushed her hands off gently and grabbed his pen-light again, carefully shining it into each of her eyes. She was lucid, clearly, pupils dilating at the touch of the light, and he swallowed. Good. She wasn't going to die on him, at least not immediately.

"Ma'am, I'm worried that removing you from the car may worsen your injury." Izuku told her, grabbing her shoulder gently to draw her attention. "I'm going to leave you here, but don't worry, medical professionals will arrive shortly."

So long as somebody called the authorities already. He couldn't hear any sirens yet, but this was Musutafu; it was a big district, it might take emergency services a little while to reach the crash site, especially in this traffic. Izuku stood up straight and found that the man from the second car had made his way to the sidewalk, leaning against the wall. The two toddlers seemed calmer now, the pale woman talking to them with a small smile on her face.

He pressed a hand to his forehead and swallowed back his nervousness. What came next? Calling emergency services himself? Or should he make sure the accident didn't escalate? Did he need to move the other crashed car? He... he could, he'd moved plenty of car wrecks in his later days on Dagoba beach...

Then the crashed car caught fire with a sudden burst of light and heat and Izuku's eyes went wide.

He grabbed his phone and made a quick call; he'd recorded the number of every single hero agency in Musutafu just in case, and in this case he knew just who to call.

"Backdraft Hero agency, this is Hana speaking." the voice said after picking up. "What is your emergency?"

"This is Izuku Midoriya." he said. "Hero name Deku. I have an accident at the intersection of 33rd and Mundi... it-it's bad, there's a fire. I've gotten the victims clear and I'm going to clear the surrounding area, but firefighters are probably caught in traffic."

"One moment please..." the phone clicked and then he heard the woman speaking to someone else for a few seconds. "Okay, Deku, Backdraft is on his way. ETA three minutes."

"Thank you." Izuku said, nodding. "I'm going to secure the area."

He took off again after hanging up, pocketing his phone as he brought a full stop to all traffic by jumping into the middle of the intersection with both hands raised.

"Everybody please turn off your cars and remain calm!" he shouted. "There's been an accident, but other Heroes are on their way!"

A few cars turned off, but then Izuku remembered he was in street clothes; a dark green t-shirt with the kanji for 'business casual' on the front in white and a pair of grey sweatpants. He didn't exactly look like a Hero. That was an issue, should he have brought his costume? Should a Hero carry their costume everywhere? How would he manage that; a backpack? A briefcase?

He shook his head a little. This was no time for muttering; he had business to take care of, people to save!

The sound of sirens in the distance drew his attention for a moment, before he began waving cars away from the crash. The police and fire fighters would likely get caught up in the traffic, a quick estimate in his head gave them a solid ten minute delay at best, which was far from ideal. The sky was already beginning to fill with smoke from the burning car at his back.

Izuku lunged into action again, pulling open car doors and urging people to get clear, even pushing cars away from the burning wreck itself with Full Cowling. He was careful to lift with his legs, of course. Then the sound of a child crying brought his attention to the backseat of the burning car, and his eyes went wide.

A baby seat. And inside...

His fist was through the glass before he could even consider the action, his hands tearing the straps from the child and his arms holding it close to his chest. He stepped back, away from the flame, and carried the child away. Idly he noted the blood on his hand where the glass shards had cut him, but he shrugged that little detail off as he brought the child to the side of the road, shushing it with a gentle sound and holding it closer, embracing it tightly. It was so tiny, pale and pink and squirming in his arms...

Pregnant.

Twins.

Midoriya is the father.

Izuku shuddered. No time for that. Heroism first. Heroism always came first. His personal life could wait.

Backdraft arrived a few minutes later, hosing down the flaming wreck with his hoses while his sidekicks helped Izuku collect the remaining civilians and establish a measure of order to proceedings. The fire died in minutes, a tow truck coming for the wreck less than half an hour later.

"Heck of a way to start a Saturday, huh kid?" one of the sidekicks, a short and somewhat round girl(?) wrapped up in a thick firefighter's coat, helmet and mask that hid any and all hints of her(?) identity from him, proclaimed as she stood beside him.

Izuku nodded.

"Welp, good work today." the girl(?) offered him a gloved hand to shake, and he took it. "I'm Hazy Flame, by the way. The big guy over there is Laval, and the one with the dogs is Flamvell. Nice to meetcha!"

The two men the woman(?) was referring to did indeed fit her rather apt descriptions of them. Flamvell was smiling with strangely pointy teeth and looking quite a bit like Hanta Sero while he let the two toddlers (Shinobu and Hinoka, his mind supplied) from earlier pet and hug his pair of black rescue dogs, their tears soaked up by the sleek black fur. Laval was pulling cars back into orderly rows after the swerving and collisions from earlier, his skin seemingly made of a deep grey stone-like substance that left Izuku staring for a moment before he took Hazy Flame's hand with a weak smile.

"Thank you for... all the help." he said, nodding. "I-I'm sorry I had to call, there was just too much to-"

"No problem, buddy!" Hazy Flame cut him off with a clap of her(?) free hand on his upper arm, likely because she(?) couldn't reach his shoulder. "That's what heroes do, right? We back each other up!"

Izuku nodded again. He could agree with that, easy.

"Besides, between you and me, been a slow week." Hazy Flame whispered, leaning in conspiratorially and holding a hand up to her(?) face as if shielding her(?) mouth. "If we didn't get a call within a couple of hours, I think the boss might have gone stir crazy."

Izuku chuckled despite himself, eyes tracking the rather amusing sight of one of many citizens trying to get a signature from Backdraft, whose support gear removed his ability to use his hands. Izuku himself had been approached for signatures and even a couple of pictures; his spontaneous heroism had proven quite popular. Combine that with the fame that followed his name after the Sports Festival... well, he was apparently quite the rising star, according to some online forums he happened to occasionally (frequently) browse.

Hazy Flame continued to talk for a little while. Izuku continued to sort of listen while watching the police finish collecting statements from the various civilians and Backdraft finish struggling with his numerous fans. After a few minutes, the short girl(?) bid him farewell with another jovial handshake, taking off in a strange waddle-jog towards the rest of her team, calling for them to wait up as they began exiting the scene.

Izuku noticed his phone buzzing in his pocket as he too walked away, and pulled it out. A wall of unread texts filled the screen; congratulations from a few classmates who had seen the event on TV or online, a text from his mother asking if he was alright.

All that, and a missed call from an unknown number.

Curious, and perhaps a little worried, he hit the 'call back' button and raised the phone to his ear, continuing down the street. It rung only once, before he heard the quiet beep of somebody answering.

"Good afternoon!" a rather chipper woman's voice answered. "This is Doctor Yasuho Nyanja; to whom am I speaking?"

Izuku blinked, taking a look around quickly before answering.

"Um... this is Izuku Midoriya..." he said, voice quietly. "I'm, um, calling back after missing your call earlier."

"Oh, young mister Midoriya!" the woman said, her smile practically audible. "Oh, how delightful! Nezu told me all about you. I trust he told you about me?"

Izuku scrambled for an answer for a moment, until it came to him. Yasuho Nyanja... of course, this was the therapist Nezu had contacted! He had been told about her a few times, mostly just updates on her progress making it back to Japan from... Africa, he believed.

"Yes... you're my... erm, therapist..." He crossed the road as he spoke. "I... wasn't aware you'd made it to Japan."

"Oh, me and my boyfriend just left the

airport!" she replied. "Nezu told me about your situation, though, so I was hoping to meet with you as soon as possible. How does Monday after school sound?"

"Monday?" Izuku considered it. "Um... how long would a... session take?"

"Think of it as a conversation, Izuku." Yasuho said. "Oh, can I call you Izuku? You can call me Yasuho if you want."

Izuku heard somebody speak, evidently near her, and she giggled.

"'And Josuke says you can call him Josuke," she added. "That's my boyfriend, by the way. He says he looks forward to meeting you."

Izuku nodded, then realized they couldn't see him nod as they were on the phone and shook his head at himself.

"You can, um, call me Izuku." he said. "And what did you mean by 'think of it as a conversation'?"

Yasuho laughed. It was a nice sound, a cute giggle that reminded Izuku of Nejire Hado of the Big Three just a little.

"Well, our sessions won't have a set time." she said. "I need to keep you for at least twenty minutes each session, but we can just spend that twenty minutes chatting to burn the clock and then you can go. Or we can talk for hours and hours, it's all up to you. I'm not going to force you to say anything."

The other voice chimed in again, and Yasuho giggled again.

"I'm not going to tell him that!" she said. "Tell him yourself!"

She took a moment to collect herself, then continued.

"Josuke's slander aside," There was a half audible protest from the other individual, and then she continued. "That's about the shape of it. We're just going to talk, Izuku. Nothing strenuous. Just think of me as a sympathetic ear for the time being; I'm told you ramble and mumble quite a bit?"

Izuku flushed red and didn't respond. Yasuho giggled again.

"Don't worry; I am too." she said. "So you can tell me anything. I'd be interested on hearing about those Quirk analyses of yours, Nezu mentioned you have a knack for it. Maybe you can finally make some sense of my Quirk; even the doctors can't figure out how it works."

Izuku straightened up at hearing that. A Quirk that even professionals hadn't been able to fully understand? That must have meant something incredible; some power nobody had ever seen before! That meant he could be the first person to actually decipher a Quirk...

"I-I can do Monday." he agreed, nodding again. "Um... where do I meet you?"

"I'll text you my office location when Nezu actually tells me!" she replied. "Until then, just call if you ever need to talk. I'm always ready to listen."

Another interjection from the other voice.

"So is Josuke." she added. "Anything else you need, Izuku?"

Izuku shook his head, then caught himself and smacked a palm to his forehead.

"Um, no... thank you!" He bowed his head. "I-I will see you on Monday!"

"Great! Have a good weekend, Izuku!"

Yasuho didn't hang up, letting Izuku do the honours before tucking his phone into his pocket and looking up at the sky. Therapy. He was going to therapy. Did he need therapy?

A real hero should be able to deal with his own problems.

He closed his eyes, and when they opened he looked forward. No time for self reflection.

He needed to buy some flowers, after all.