All For One was gone.

Tomura Shigaraki and Himiko Toga were arrested and taken not to Tartarus, but to juvenile detention facilities. Izuko… she'd made a promise. Kyoka, too, had to start doing what she promised to do.

Mirko and All Might were giving each other a look that made Kyoka feel quite worried. They were in the exercise basement in Mirko's agency, and All Might hadn't even bothered hiding his hollowed out form today.

"I've spoken to Gran Torino," Mirko said. "You're a savant when it came to that quirk of yours, but your ability to teach is… questionable at best. Your students weren't very impressed."

All Might's shoulders sagged. "I know."

"But it's not like you've done that badly," Mirko continued. "We'll get her through this together, right? So what's the quirk like."

"Well," All Might said, crossing his arms. "A… flame would not be inaccurate. It's kept alive by the memories of those who held it before."

Kyoka nodded. She felt something like that one day during a dream. Like she was sitting at a campfire with heavy hands sitting on her shoulders.

"Alright, then we'll work on sparks first," Mirko said. "Remember the first sparring match we had?"

"Yeah," Kyoka said, nodding again. "You said I had to look at you like an enemy so I wouldn't pull my punches."

"Please, do pull your punches somewhat," All Might warned. "The quirk can be highly destructive not just to others, but yourself as well. Once you have complete mastery of it, you'll be much more powerful than me in my prime, especially with the way it might improve your own quirk."

Mirko pointed at a training dummy that was standing nearby. "Punch."

Kyoka rolled her eyes. She walked over to the dummy. She had kicked it over a hundred times by now, to the point Mirko had started training them harder by getting heavier dummies and fixing them onto the ground. Izuko was still quite capable of knocking them over when she wanted, but Kyoka still struggled with it.

But with this flame-

She turned around, receiving a nod from both All Might and Mirko. Kyoka took a deep breath.

And cocked her fist back.

And gathered sparks of that flame. Slowly. Very, very slowly. The sparks burned, she lost concentration for a moment. The second she punched, the dummy splintered into a hundred pieces.

So did her hand. Her arm was fine, but everything above her wrist was bruised. She hissed in pain, sinking to her knees and clutching her hand to her chest. Mirko and All Might ran over.

"Fuck," she said, quite loudly, in the face of her teachers. Mirko didn't laugh like she usually would. "What the fuck."

All Might scratched the back of his head. "So much for clenching your buttcheeks, err. I'll call Recovery Girl."

Kyoka glared at him as he walked off to the stairs. Mirko wrapped her hand up with some bandages she pulled out from somewhere.

It was so quiet, she could hear her heartbeat.

In the end, the arena was chosen by Aizawa on UA campus, who had graciously accepted the responsibility of 'proctoring' the match. Hawks was watching as well, leaning against the wall.

Dabi was psyching himself up in his corner of the 'ring'. He looked off. His hair was red, his eyes looked quite like Todoroki's, and the lack of scars made him look a lot more approachable. If he didn't overuse his quirk, and kept visiting the doctor, he could stay scar free for the rest of his life.

Somehow she doubted he would care much. Todoroki was going to kick his ass if he made their mom cry, though.

"Do we need to go over the rules again?" Aizawa asked. Dabi shook his head.

"No killing and maiming, fight ends when you use your quirk to tell us it ends, and if we break the rules, birdbrain back there will personally bring us to jail. Sounds about right?"

"I wish I could say you're the worst person I've had to watch fight in this gym," Aizawa said, shaking his head. "Start whenever, just finish it quickly so I can go home."

"You hear that?" Dabi asked, turning to Izuko. "He told me to kick your ass quickly."

"It's weird," Izuko said. "Maybe it's because of your pretty boy face, but I feel less inclined to punch your nose into your brain."

Dabi snorted. "Any more big announcements?"

Izuko thought. She shrugged, her eyes dancing from Aizawa to Hawks and then back to Dabi. After a moment of thought, she opened her mouth to speak.

"I told myself people couldn't change because I didn't want to believe I could be better," Izuko said. Dabi twitched. "But you know what, I'm full of shit. I've always been full of shit. And so are you."

Dabi grinned, shrugging in an exaggerated motion. "I suppose that's one way to look at it. So what, you gonna appeal to my inner child? Tell me everything will be fine? That I should visit that shrink of yours?"

"Fuck no. If you touch her I'll burn your face off too," Izuko said, punching her fist into her palm. Blue fire sparked around her. "I'm saying we're not the same assholes who fought each other last year. So when I kick your ass, I'll drag you over to your mom and we're going to have some dinner."

"Kick my ass, you say?" Dabi muttered. He picked at his ear. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you over all that shit seeping out of your mouth."

Izuko moved first. She kicked forward as Aizawa walked towards Hawks. Her body twisted through the air, drilling into Dabi's raised arms. He fell backwards, too easily she noticed. When his back touched the ground, she didn't have enough of a foothold to kick back. He kipped up, his quirk shooting out from his feet and right onto her.

He knew though.

There was no way he could defeat her with his quirk.

Because All For One's fucked up experiments have left her body completely incapable of being affected by fire. It did not stop the flames from blocking her vision, however.

His feet hit her in the chest, sending her sprawling. She coughed, rolling out of the way as another wall of flames came down on her. It was a stark contrast from the first time they fought.

She was completely unapologetic, still. Drugging someone with a quirk while she didn't have one, so she could earn one of her own? Who wouldn't do such a thing. But that was then, this is now.

Now?

Now?

Now she was not a quirkless loser with a desire to prove herself. Now she was a normal goddamn girl.

Who threw normal fucking punches.

The fist of her normality hit Dabi in the face with the force of a rabbit-themed train. The knuckles pushed against his chin, sending him staggering backwards as she summoned her own flames. Before he could dodge, her hands clasped around his head, pulling at his hair and shouting flames. He kneed her in the stomach, and she let go. His face was slightly singed, the heat was kept under control, she didn't want to burn off all his hair before he got to meet his mother again, after all.

When he tried to punch, it was slow and aimless. He could barely see, it seemed. She grabbed his arm and jumped up, her legs wrapping around his neck and twisting around to send him onto the ground.

Straddling him was a mistake. He had aim now. His fist hit her in the face, but she had the high ground. She felt no remorse as she pounded his head into the ground. She wouldn't quite call it therapeutic, but beating the shit out of Dabi was definitely the next best thing to punching Endeavor.

Dabi grabbed her wrists and opened his mouth wide. He shouted, similar to her, copying her move and sending a wave of heat that made her eyes tear up and her throat feel singed. He rolled, taking her with him. Dabi tried to straddle her, she punched him in the throat. He kicked her in the chest.

They slid apart on the floor, staggering upright. Dabi was still half-blind, while Izuko recovered faster.

"Hey," Izuko said. "Sorry."

Dabi blinked. But before he could even process what she was saying, Izuko moved. She leapt, easily slipping past a sloppy punch. Sure, it meant she couldn't hit him back, but Izuko hadn't been aiming for his face.

Her feet touched the wall behind Dabi. She spun. erupting in a massive jet of flame as she pushed off, putting every ounce of her quirk into a kick that just clipped Dabi's chin in a show of control that made Hawks smile.

But even that was enough to send the ex-villain flying. He hit the ground hard, and tumbled to a stop. Izuko landed a second later.

If she'd hit him full on that kick would have cracked his skull like a grape.

On the other side of the room, Dabi coughed, black smoke escaping his lips before he drew a sharp breath.

Aizawa stepped in, crouching down next to Dabi to give him a once over. "Can you keep going?"

"Do I look like I can keep going?" Dabi asked. His voice was rough, clearly strained, and his jaw was already starting to swell. "Holy shit you stink, fuck off and give me room to breathe."

Izuko sunk to her knees. Her limbs were shaking, and her hands would not hold their grip on her upper arms. She had not felt this cold in a long time.

"Are you happy?" she asked. Her voice was even, even as Dabi's ragged breathing turned into a low growl accented by thick billows of smoke from both his nose and ears. "You got your fight."

"Depends," Dabi said, turning his gaze from Aizawa and glaring at her. "Was I close?"

Izuko forced her limbs to sit still, slowly rising from her position on the ground. "No."

Dabi laughed, coughing another bit of smoke before turning around and pushing off the ground. "You're such an arrogant little shit."

Izuko laughed as well. Aizawa glanced back and forth between them, rubbing the bridge of his nose in visible frustration.

"Is he good?" Izuko asked. Aizawa shrugged.

"Looks intact, probably needs to be checked over but-"

"Good enough for me," Izuko said. She walked up to Dabi, who barely struggled when she lifted the young man up and threw him over her shoulder. "We've got dinner with his mom."

"You were serious," Dabi said, unable to resist the manhandling. "You can't be serious."

Izuku laughed all the way to the exit.

Epilogue, upcoming:

Dancing in the rain.