Kyoka wasn't sure why she was still competing. Izuko had practically collapsed after her bout, carted off by a muttering Recovery Girl Kyoka wanted to go with her girlfriend, but the Hero's orders had been clear. Izuko needed rest, and Kyoka needed to compete or else be disqualified.

While Kyoka was more than willing to forfeit immediately, she knew that it wouldn't wake up Izuko earlier. If nothing else, she would try her best with the opportunity that Izuko had given her.

Setsuna Tokage had faced off against Iida, and lost just barely after a good back and forth, using her quirk to dodge his high speed attacks until she grew too tired from regenerating destroyed pieces.

Kirishima had faced Momo and defeated her quite easily, rushing her down before she had the time to react and using a move on her that Izuko had taught him, throwing her far and wide out of the arena.

Kyoka would be facing Mina, who looked less than thrilled about it. Though the usually cheerful pink girl was practically bouncing around, Kyoka could see her expression change back and forth between a forced smile and a worried frown.

"Is she alright?" Mina asked. The countdown started. Ten seconds. Kyoka frowned.

"I don't know," Kyoka said. She remembered Mirko's lesson. Izuko approached every fight, even spars, like her opponent was truly an enemy. "We can visit her when we're done."

"Sounds good." Mina raised her palms, ready to use her quirk. Three. Two. One.

Kyoka dodged a (hopefully low powered) dose of acid and ran forward. Mina filled the floor with slippery liquid and slid away from the approach, keeping some distance between them. However, Kyoka had her own trick now.

When Mina cartwheeled out of the reach of one of her earphone jacks, the other one had already snuck its way around the pink girl's wrist and pulled, tripping her up. Kyoka was now in range, and that meant a very simple beatdown.

Mina was not good at hand to hand combat. In a testament of her excitable personality, her every expression and motion was exaggerated. When she went to throw a punch, even a novice would be able to tell. If she was winding up to kick you, her entire body announced it.

When she instead tried to block using her thick acid, Kyoka had pulled her arms apart using the earphone jacks and kicked the girl in the stomach. Mina wheezed, falling over.

"Is… is it over already?" Present Mic's voice rang through the place. Everyone cheered. The fight was not long, and Kyoka was barely winded. It looked like Mina's own worries distracted her more than Kyoka's did. "Midnight?"

"Can you keep going?" Midnight asked. Mina looked up, then down at Kyoka's legs which had been taking on quite some definition since her training with Mirko began. After a moment of silence, Mina shook her head. She likely could keep fighting, but it wasn't worth the injuries. Kyoka understood.

"Winner, Kyoka Jirou!"

Kyoka helped Mina up to her feet and carried her over to the stands. The next fight was announced shortly after. Iida would face Kirishima.

Izuko woke up to the sound of a machine beeping softly. She came to in the nurse's office, and the vague memory of what had transpired caused her to cringe into herself, shuddering as she remembered her reflection in everyone's eyes.

What a miserable person she was.

But…

Perhaps she had proven herself wrong. She knew that the Fire Princess would not have pulled back from that fight. In the name of revenge, she would have destroyed anyone in her path, because that was the kind of person she had always been.

But the word 'always' did not quite apply anymore. Very few people with middle school syndrome actually had the "fire that would reduce creation to ash" as their quirk. It changed a girl. Izuko sighed, turning around to the machine attached to her arm and flipping a switch. The beeping stopped.

Recovery Girl appeared at the base of the bed, forcing Izuko to look down. "Don't turn that off."

She turned it on again. The beeping was annoying, but Izuko did not complain. "What happened?"

Recovery Girl pointed at the screen. She knew it wasn't the fight that Izuko wanted to know about, but the subsequent ones. Kirishima had just defeated Iida, and the next fight was…

Izuko's eyes widened. She nearly threw her blanket onto the ground and rushed out, but Recovery Girl's firm hand stopped her.

"I need to stop them, he'll-" Izuko said. The countdown hadn't even started before the boy raised his hand.

"I forfeit," Todoroki announced. He looked… off. Not quite the way she had seen him before. His eyes were less clouded, and his gaze was not threatening to fall on his clearly furious father who was visible in the background.

Kyoka looked as confused as Izuko.

Kirishima was tired.

Kyoka could see it. He had hardened too often today, and while his stamina was certainly on the upper end of Class 1-A, even he had his limits. While Kyoka only had one fight, Kirishima had two so far. Iida had left him in a pretty bad state.

It was then that she realized something critical.

She might be able to win.

Kyoka had not approached the tournament with any real expectation-or desire even-to win. She had, in fact, been pretty certain that Izuko would take the gold medal and go home with it. Making it to the finals herself was a surprise, because she'd ridden the coattails of those who were much stronger and better than her.

But not every fight was fair. Not every tournament would be nice.

Kirishima gave her a grin so wide that she couldn't help but grin back. He was too out of breath to say anything, but his stance announced his intent as the countdown began. He would fight to the end, and the best would take this crown.

Todoroki's surrender, likely due to the dissatisfaction of not being able to fight the only person he wanted to fight, ended up becoming the biggest turnaround of this stage.

The countdown ended with a loud buzzing noise. Kyoka and Kirishima clashed. Her boots hit his hardened knuckles with sparks. Her other foot came up to kick off his chest when he tried to grab it. She flew through the air, spinning by using her earphone jacks in the ground.

The excitement got to her. The cheers were like prayers in her ears. Her heart was beating to the sound of their clapping hands.

Thunderdrums and rattling chains. She pointed her boots at Kirishima as she fell, pushing her earphone jacks into the modified boots and sending out her heartbeats as soundwaves. Kirishima cracked.

But he would not stop. His hardening ended with a heavy shudder as his body pulled itself together again. She hit the ground and rolled out of his stomp. She rolled back, kicking upwards and then pushing off the ground to kip up, landing on her feet. Her earphone jacks moved from the boots into the ground and vibrated.

The arena crumbled slightly. Kirishima lost his footing. Kyoka grabbed him by the vest of his costume. He, in turn, grabbed her wrists and pushed, stopping her from throwing him.

"Hey, Kirishima," Kyoka said. "Can you still harden up?"

Kirishima frowned. His happy fighting grin turned into a worried wide-eyed look. Kyoka pulled her head back as she twisted her wrists to break his hold, grabbing his arms to lock them in place. With a roar, she bashed her forehead directly against the bridge of his nose. She felt him harden his face, but it lost most of its edge before she hurt herself on it.

He staggered back, dazed but not out yet. Dazed was good enough. One of her hands grabbed him under his armpit as she pulled on his wrist, lifting him up. He refused to forfeit. His other hand came down on her shoulder and he shifted his weight to land again-

"Winner," Midnight announced. "Kyoka Jirou."

Kirishima blinked, then looked down. The part of the arena she had destroyed before was right near the edge, leaving a small slope down to the ground, at an angle that made it hard to notice the ground was uneven. Had she thrown him, he would have ended up in the arena still, likely out of the fight anyway.

But the way he landed had sent him straight over the edge. She had won by ringout.

Kirishima let go of her shoulder and staggered back. Kyoka gauged his reaction. He took a deep, shuddering breath, and sighed.

Then he grinned again, smiling up at her before falling over backwards with a thumbs up.

Kyoka was going to wear a shit-eating grin for the rest of the day.

Izuko stood near the gate, smiling back at her. Recovery Girl was behind her, all but pulling the girl back to the nurse's office. Kyoka would join them soon.

It was on the way to the nurse's office that she was caught by Aizawa, who had told her that All Might was looking for her in a nearby office room.

Kyoka wasn't sure whether she wanted to meet with the man right now. She still had Izuko to worry about, but something in Aizawa's voice made it sound urgent. Sighing, she ended up taking a left from the hallway to Recovery Girl's office and found the room in question. It was a plain office with a small table and two chairs in the middle. The desk in the corner looked like it hadn't been touched for years.

"You wanted to see me?" Kyoka asked, walking through the door and closing it behind her. The man on the couch did not look like All Might. He looked more like a hollow shell, a strange emasculated alien being with spiky blond hair and a chin that looked like it could cut someone. "Err, sorry, I must've gotten the wrong room."

"No," the man said. "Please, take a seat, young Jirou."

She frowned. His voice was… familiar. She always had something of an ear(phone jack) for specific sounds, and voices were some of those. It was…

"All… All Might-sensei?" Kyoka asked, blinking. The man nodded slowly. "What happened to you?"

"It's kind of a long story," he said. "One that young Izuko is familiar with, so you do not need to lie to her about this conversation. Suffice it to say that almost six years ago, I was in a fight with All For One that caused a severe injury. While I had defeated him, or so I had thought back then, it came at a price."

He lifted his shift. The scar was disgusting, and Kyoka resisted the urge to throw up. Still, she went green in the face, pushing one of her hands over her mouth.

"There are… many ways in which I consider my conduct with Izuko Midoriya a failure," All Might said. His body inflated, turning into the form she was more familiar with. Despite that, it was not a smile on his face, but a sad frown. "Back when she asked me if she could be a hero without a quirk, I was a hypocrite."

"What do you mean?" Kyoka asked, her voice faint. "She said she doesn't blame you for it, you weren't wrong-"

"But I was," he said, a bit rushed. His hands came together, his fingers intertwining. "Just like her, I was born quirkless. The quirk I have now was granted to me, again, just like hers, though the circumstances were different."

"Different?" Kyoka asked, frowning. Her nausea was leaving her as her interest was piqued. "I assume you mean you didn't receive it from All For One."

"In a way, we all did," All Might explained. "Eight successors of this quirk, the first who was All For One's brother."

The story he weaved was one that sounded too far fetched to be real, and yet it was told by the one man who had been held up as the paragon of virtue and all that is good. All Might was many things, and she had quite some opinions about him due to how Izuko had looked up to him, but she knew that he was not a liar.

"I should have given her my quirk, but now… I do not think that she would want it, even if I were to offer it."

"She would probably hate you."

"I know," All Might said. "She knows it can be passed on, I thought that All For One had told her to make her angrier at me, but from that I can tell it was one of the few things she didn't care about. She's a complicated person, as you may know."

"Tell me about it," Kyoka said, sighing. "So why are you telling me this?"

"I know you have more things to worry about right now, and I do not wish to pressure you into a decision," All Might said. "My master has always said that I should not never judge someone by their ability, but the content of their character. I have erred on that front in many ways, and as I approach a point in my life where I feel I cannot continue for much longer, I have… a request."

"What kind of request?"

"I wish to make you my successor," All Might said. "And for that, I wish to pass on my quirk to you. To someone whose legs move faster than their brain."

Kyoka thought.

And blinked.

And tilted her head, then cleaned her ear with her pinky just to make sure she heard right. All Might didn't interrupt her, instead waiting for her response with bated breath.

"Is it… because I won the tournament?" Kyoka said. All Might shook his head.

"I made this decision… almost on a whim, I suppose," All Might said. "Not during your fight, but the young Izuko's. When you ran onto the stage as the fire was still burning, worried not for yourself but for her and those she might hurt. It proves a character that I have not been able to live up to for many years."

"And you think I'm… good? As good as you?"

"No, Kyoka Jirou," All Might said, standing up. He raised a hand to his head and plucked a strand of his hair. "I think you are great, and I believe firmly that you will be better than me."

Kyoka wasn't sure why, but somehow she felt comforted by those words.

Chapter 22, upcoming:

"Let me be clear here," Dabi said, raising his hand. Flames danced on his now unmarred skin. "This isn't me asking nicely. I know you think you're untouchable because of All For One, but you and me both know that you're nothing without a cool head to keep you in check. You touch her, I will kill you."

"Funny," Shigaraki said, his dirty grin turned grotesque. The handprint on his face was almost glowing like a fresh wound. "It almost sounds like you're threatening me."