Izuku tried not to look at Kurusu-kun. Instead, he focused on the Nostalgia Steak the teen had ordered for him. So… he was being nice. Really nice. A lot nicer than Izuku had expected, to be honest. Hesitantly, he ate some of the steak. It was delicious, reminding him of his mother's cooking. He swallowed, the meat going down rougher than he expected.

He'd… been rude a lot to Kurusu-kun in the past, hadn't he?

Fortunately, meat was allowed in his diet and the steak looked like a lean cut, so Izuku wouldn't feel guilty about finishing it.

Kurusu-kun sat across from him with his own Nostalgia Steak, sipping at his Frui-tea in between bites. Beside him sat his cat, tucked away in his bag so the waiters couldn't see. Every once in a while, Kurusu-kun would sneak a bite of steak into the bag for him.

He'd been really rude to Kurusu-kun.

"You…" Izuku spoke for the first time since entering the dinner. "You didn't have to order this for me. A coffee would have been just fine." The Nostalgia Steak was expensive, the second most on the menu.

Kurusu-kun grimaced. This close, Izuku could see little physical mutations that were often indicative of an evoker quirk: the fingers dyed black with pointed fingernails, the sharp teeth, the bright blue of his veins under pale skin, the white of his eyes actually being black that his too shiny glasses covered. Izuku felt like he was talking to a demon lord. "I wouldn't want to subject that on you, kid. The coffee here is… let's say it's not anywhere near on par with Boss's. Besides, I like to support this place. It's a cozy place to study when it rains."

"Do you study here often?"

"As often as I can. It's a good, central location near most of my part-time jobs. I feel like I get an extra pip of knowledge every time I study here, though I also study at LeBlanc. Not so much at school. Too much noise."

Izuku could relate to that; whenever he tried to study in the school library, he could hear everyone whisper around him. Usually it was about unimportant topics, school gossip and the like, but whenever Katsuki was particularly harsh that day, the whispers were all about him, mocking him, laughing at him. It was exhausting.

"I usually study at home, or at LeBlanc," Izuku offered.

"Really? I haven't seen you around that often." Akira said and Izuku winced. "I guess we just miss each other a lot."

"Yeah… plus, I've been really busy lately."

"Oh? Preparing for high school entrance exams?"

Izuku nodded, smiling for the first time since he ran into Kurusu-kun. "Yeah! I've been training for UA."

He expected a follow-up question, like Kurusu-kun asking what his quirk was, or a comment about how he didn't look the hero type, but he just nodded. "That's a difficult path, but if you're determined enough, I think you can do it."

Izuku straightened in his chair. "You think so?"

"Boss says that you used to come into LeBlanc several times a week for hours at a time. Now you only come in one a week for 30 minutes." Kurusu-kun shrugged. "If you're putting in the time and are that determined to be a hero, UA would have to be run by idiots not to let you in."

He stuttered, scandalized that anyone would even accuse Nedzu, the Principled Hero, of being an idiot. "I, I wouldn't say that…" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"You'd be surprised." Kurusu sipped his tea. "Both of my parents work for the Hero Commission and you won't believe how many heroes get permanently injured due to a lack of training. Their quirks are great, but it's the rest of them that's the problem." He set the tea down with a light clink. "What kind of training are you doing?"

"Strength and muscle building. I'm cleaning Takoba Municipal Beach Park by hand."

"Cleaning?"

"It's a dump. Literally; the way the tides are there brings a lot of trash to shore, and people end up dumping the rest."

"Community service is good; I have to do around 100 hours during my year of probation. Maybe I could join you every once in a while?"

Izuku winced. "I don't know… my trainer is dead set on me clearing the beach before entrance exams." Plus, he didn't know how All Might would react to someone who didn't know about his injury showing up to their training.

Kurusu frowned. "…Is it a small beach?"

"…No." Not in the slightest.

The frown deepened. "Are you doing any other training?"

"…I'm on a special diet?"

"But he's not teaching you to fight? Parkour? First Aid? Dodging?"

"A-Ah… He says that building muscle needs to be our first priority…"

"Not at your age! You're not even out of middle school yet. Putting on too much muscle before you hit puberty can mess up your bones. I have a doctor friend who can explain it if you don't believe me."

Izuku waved his hands in front of his face. "No, no, I believe you! It's just… Gaining muscle is really important right now." If he wanted to be able to inherit All Might's quirk… His weak Baton Pass wouldn't even be able to get him past the entrance exams.

Kurusu sat back in his booth, exhaling harshly. "I don't suppose you're doing anything to improve your mind, are you?"

He sounded so resigned that Izuku couldn't help an indignant, "I am, actually! I do quirk analysis!"

"Really?" He tilted his head. "Is that what was in your notebook?"

Izuku dropped his gaze, suddenly mortified by how he acted when Kurusu had last seen his notebook. Kurusu had been nothing but kind to him today. The least he could do was tell him a little… "Y-Yeah. I like analyzing hero quirks. I'm, I'm pretty good at it too! Since so many villains rely solely on their quirks, I figure if I can analyze them, I can beat them."

"Do you analyze villain quirks? Or anyone else?"

"Not so much villains, but the people I know, yeah. Villains aren't in the public eye that often, since reoccurring villains make up around 10 percent of the villain population and even then, they're rarely on television." Izuku honestly wondered about the villain-to-hero ratio sometimes, since no matter how many heroes there were in Japan, there were always twice the number of villains to meet them.

"That's good…" Kurusu sighed. "I'm still concerned though. You really need to learn how to fight…"

"I'd ask my mentor, but he's already so busy, he's only at the beach one day a week." Izuku shrugged. "And me and my mom don't have enough money lying around to send me to a dojo, otherwise I would have gone years ago."

Kurusu's hand rested near his mouth as he nodded. The cat, Morgana, peeked his head out of the bag to look at Izuku before chirping at Kurusu, who nodded again in response. Kurusu met Izuku's gaze, his black-grey eyes intense. "What if I taught you how to fight?"

"W-What!?" He couldn't have heard that correctly.

"I know a few fighting styles—my parent's work and all—so I could definitely teach you. I'm pretty good at fighting, if you couldn't guess."

I already guessed, Izuku thought hysterically, since you were arrested for assault!

"—You'd be able to learn safely, then practice on your own. I'm teaching some friends too, so you can spar together if you want." Kurusu smiled, bright and charming. "What do you say?"

"What do you want from me?" Izuku blurted out.

"Nothing but your friendship."

"No one wants my friendship." Izuku looked away, phantom explosions burning his skin. "I… I could do quirk analysis for you. A-As long as you don't use it to do anything illegal…" Izuku flinched. "N-Not that you would! It's just—"

"I understand. You don't have to do anything at all, but if you prefer… then it's a deal?" Kurusu held his hand out to be shaken.

"Deal." Izuku grabbed the hand. "Call me Izuku?"

"If you call me Akira."

And while Izuku couldn't notice, Akira was frozen in time, listening to a phantom little girl whisper in his ear:

I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow.
It shall become the wings of rebellion that break thy chains of captivity.
With the birth of the Charity Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that should lead to freedom and new power...